To Hone a Leaf Blade
by bc414
Summary: After years of being away, a Flareon returns to the forest where he grew up as an Eevee, but bandits are attacking the Pokémon in the forest, and his childhood best friend already has a mate. Follow Hickory as he teaches Maple how to fight against the Raiders and as he deals with the problem of loving someone who already has a mate.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Welcome to To Hone a Leaf Blade! This is the first story I've ever written. I've read many Pokemon stories here on FFN and was inspired to write my own story. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.

* * *

Finding a specific place in the middle of a forest was hard. Every tree looked the same. I've searched for my home for a month now. After years of being away, I had no idea how I might find my home other than directionless wandering. At the moment, I was resting under a Maple tree after a meal of Oran berries.

I was watching a figure soar through the sky. The figure stopped, looked back down at me, then swooped down to me. "What are you doing here?" He asked in a gruff voice. It was a Talonflame.

I cowered a bit from his menacing stance, but said, "Hi, uh… I'm just wandering around the forest."

The intimidating bird narrowed his yellow eyes on me, and asked, "Why are you wandering around the forest?"

"Uh… well," I hesitated, distracted by the piercing stare, "I-I used to live somewhere in the forest… a long time ago, but I was caught by a human-"

"Human? There are no humans anywhere around here! You're a liar! You must be a Raider!" the Talonflame boomed, and before I knew it I had ducked to avoid the dangerous swing of his wing.

"Whoa, hey! What's the big idea?!" I yelled.

"Get away from here, you Raider!" screeched the Talonflame.

"What's a Raider?" I asked.

"Don't play dumb with me!" the Talonflame roared, attacking me with his wing again. As I hopped backwards to avoid the vicious blow, I noticed an area on the bottom of his wing that was missing feathers and had a distinct scar. It was so distinct that I could remember seeing it before, a long time ago…

"Hey, I think I know you!" I called out to the Talonflame, who had flown upwards and was preparing to attack me again. Upon hearing me say that, he narrowed his eyes on me. "Are you Fletchy?" I asked.

"What did you just call me?" squaked the bird, his voice now more confused than threatening.

"Fletchy. I think I recognize that wing scar. Did you use to live with a family of Pidgeys?"

"And who are you?" he inquired, now as curious as ever.

"I'm Hickory! Remember me? I'm a Flareon now, but I used to be your Eevee pal!"

The Talonflame's acute and focused eyes widened when he heard my name. "Hickory...? It's been years since you disappeared! Is it really you?"

"Yes, it's me. So I guess that means you are Fletchy! You've certainly grown so much; you're no longer the little tweety Fletchling, huh?"

The Talonflame chuckled and said, "Nope, I'm a big, tough Talonflame now. Speaking of which, I have a new name. I'm called Falc now."

"Alright, but you'll always be Fletchy to me," I answered, stifling a laugh.

"Please call me Falc now? I haven't been Fletchy for such a long time."

"Okay, okay… Falc," I said. Falc grinned.

"You've grown a lot as well, You're a fire type now. We both went from normal types to fire types," Falc remarked. "So what happened to you? Where have you been all this time?"

"Well, one day I wandered off on my own and was caught by a human," I started.

"But there are no humans even remotely close to this area," Falc interrupted.

"My trainer had been lost in the forest for a days before catching me, but eventually made it back to places with humans. Have you ever seen what it's like outside of the forest?"

"Yes, I have. When I evolved into a Fletchinder, I took to the skies to travel, and I saw all the stuff that humans built. It was quite shocking."

"Well anyway," I continued, "I was brought into the human environment by my trainer. When he first caught me he had only recently left his home and was pretty inexperienced. I really missed everyone back home, but I got used to my trainer and my teammates. Besides, back then, there was no way for me to return home anyway."

"I trained and grew strong and we went on many adventures. Eventually I evolved into a Flareon. My life was pretty enjoyable. But as time went on and my trainer grew older, he started getting involved with a bad group of people. He started committing crimes and doing other bad stuff with this group. Soon enough, some of his other Pokémon and me made the painful decision to leave our trainer. Despite years of being with him, he was no longer the same boy that he was when he was younger and our loyalty left us. That was about a year ago. After we left, I traveled with my friends to find their old homes. Now I'm here, looking for my home."

"Well Hickory, you've found home. Welcome back!" exclaimed Falc.

I was home. I felt a wave of comfort on the inside that I hadn't felt in a long time upon hearing that. After many years of adventure, I was finally back home. "So, could you lead the way to my old den?" I asked.

Falc thought for a moment, then said, "Sorry, I don't really remember where it is. I haven't been there since you disappeared."

"Alright, well lead me in the right direction and I'll see if anything looks familiar," I requested.

"Okay, it's this way," he said, pointing in the direction with his wing. With a few flaps, he was in the air gliding with me following on foot.

"Wait, sorry, I can't lead you for long. I'm still on watch duty," said Falc.

"What are you watching for?" I asked.

"Raiders," Falc said promptly, flapping high into the skies.

"Wait!" I called. "What are Raiders?"

"They are a group of bandits who attack Pokémon and steal stuff, and it's my job to stop them! I lost some time talking to you and have to continue my patrol now! See you soon Hickory!" Falc hollered back, flying off above the treetops.

"Wait!" I yelled, but Falc was already out of sight and earshot. He was certainly exceptionally fast now.

I continued to go in the direction that Falc went in because if he was guarding that area, there must be other Pokémon there, and I might find someone else I know or some landmarks I might recognize. I did recognize the trees in this area, although they didn't seem as tall since I was a lot taller as a Flareon than as an Eevee. Eventually, the forest thinned out into a field of tall grass and flowers. I felt joyful upon recognizing the field. This was a place I often played at as a kit!

"Wow, someone's grown a berry garden here!" I thought, spotting the area of thriving plants at the side of the field. Approaching the garden, I saw several rows of all kinds of berry bushes.

I came upon a row of Figy bushes, my favorite berry, and my mouth started to water. I continued through the rows of bushes to see what other berries were grown here. There were lots of Oran, Sitrus, and Pecha berries, and many different berries that had just one bush. About where I estimated was the middle, my eyes were glued to a magnificent sight - a Custap berry bush. Custap berries were my second favorite berry; I'm not crazy about sweet berries, but Custap berries were just so incredibly good in both taste and texture.

I haven't had a Custap berry since I was taken away from the forest, and back then I rarely got to have one because they were super rare and very hard to grow. I vaguely remembered when I last has a Custap berry; it was with my best childhood friend Maple, who was also an Eevee. She would go crazy when we found one to eat because she loved them so much. Luckily she still always shared with me. I remembered how she said she wanted to grow her own Custap berry bush.

I was so distracted by the sight of the Custap berry bush and my reminiscing that I wasn't watching where I was going. I turned the corner and-

"Oof!"

I reeled backwards, rubbing my head with my paw where it has impacted with another head. I looked up, and standing before me was a Leafeon, also rubbing its head.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"It's alright," said the Leafeon in a soft, feminine voice. "Welcome to my garden."

Something about her voice felt familiar somehow, but I didn't how. "So you grew all this?" I asked.

"Yup," she answered.

"This Custap bush is really amazing. It must have been really hard to grow," I said.

"Yeah, it was, but it was well worth it. Custap berries have been my favorite berry ever since I was a kit. Unfortunately, the Custap berries aren't ready yet, otherwise you could have one," she said.

"Maple would really love this Leafeon," I thought to myself.

"Feel free to pick any berries that you like," the Leafeon said pleasantly, then she walked off to another part of the garden.

I watched her walk off; something about the way she walked was familiar to me for some reason. "Watching the way someone walks is weird," I told myself, yet I had a feeling I knew the Leafeon. Wait, could that Leafeon possibly be Maple? The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Leafeons evolved from Eevees. I got really excited by the thought of seeing my best friend again after so many years. I quickly searched the rest of the garden, finding her next to an Oran berry bush, examining it.

"Excuse me, what's your name?" I inquired.

"My name is Maple. What's yours?" She answered.

"Maple! It's me, Hickory! I'm back!" I exclaimed in a burst of joy.

Her eyes lit up when I said who I was. She stared at me for a moment, then exclaimed, "Hickory! Is it really you?"

"Yeah, I know it's been a long time, but I'm back!"

"So where have you been all this time? One day you just disappeared!"

"I wandered off to the edge of the forest on my own and was caught by a human."

"I've never seen a human before. I've only heard stories about them. Are humans bad?"

"Some are, but most aren't."

"So... You left home to go on an adventure with a human?" Maple asked in an accusing voice.

"No! I didn't want to leave home, the human just took me away and I didn't know the way back." I looked at the floor solemnly. "I really missed you and my parents and would have come back immediately if I could."

"I spent weeks looking for you," said Maple. "Every morning after waking up I would go to your den to see if you were home yet. Then I would spend most of the day looking all over the surrounding area for you. Even after your parents gave up and stopped looking, I kept searching for a week before giving up. I really missed you."

"I'm really sorry…" I didn't know what else to say. Honestly, I was really thrilled that she cared about me that much to search for me for that long, and wasn't thinking about how sad it must have been for her. After being taken away, I really missed my parents, Maple, everyone else I knew, and my home, but I kind of casted those thoughts away and tried to get used to and enjoy my new life, making the best out of the situation.

"Well, you're here now, and that's what matters," said Maple, smiling sweetly at me. I smiled back, but then felt myself start to blush, and had to look away. She was really beautiful as a grown up Leafeon and I didn't expect to feel this way. As I grew up while I was away I realized that I cared for my friend as more than just a friend.I was really looking forward to seeing her again, but I didn't expect to feel uncomfortable like this.

"You're a big strong Flareon now," said Maple.

"And you're a lovely Leafeon now," I said, putting words to my thoughts without thinking about it. I realized what I had just said a second later, and instantly averted my eyes, blushing.

"Uh, th-thanks," she said hesitantly. There was an awkward silence for some time until I said, "If I remember correctly, my family's den is this way," pointing in the direction from the field where I thought my family's den was.

"Yeah, but there might be someone else living there now," said Maple.

"What? Where are my parents?"

"Oh, I forgot to say, your parents left a few years ago. They, uh, I guess they decided that you wouldn't be showing up back home any time soon, so they decided to travel around. They said they always wanted to go on adventures rather than stay put forever, and said they might possibly run into you some day. They come back here every year or so, in case you do return."

I felt sad that I my parents weren't here to see me return all grown up. I wanted to see their expression when they see all that I could do. But mostly I wanted to see them because the second part of my childhood was missing them and I wanted them back in my life.

"I'll lead you to your den," said Maple, starting to walk.

Although I must have walked the route from the field to my den countless times when I was younger, I couldn't recognize much along the way. Either the scenery changed a lot, or I couldn't remember the area from so long ago. The walk from the field to my old den was shorter than I remembered, probably because I was a little Eevee back then and a grown up Flareon now.

I knew for sure it was my old den because of the Figy berry tree right outside of it. As a kit, I would get my breakfast from that tree most of the time. I remembered the tree as beautiful and bright green, with ripe, orange Figy berries hanging from the branches. This tree was the reason Figy berries were my favorite. But now the tree was old, its bark less smooth, and with few berries on it.

The den was vacant, with no visual trace of any recent inhabitants. However, I caught a faint scent of an unfamiliar Pokémon.

"What if someone lives here now?" I asked Maple.

"It doesn't seem like anyone has been here recently, so it's up for grabs," she answered.

"So I can just take the den if it's empty?" I asked.

"Yeah… why not?" Maple answered, as if it was obvious.

"But how would you feel if you left your den for a month or so and found someone else living there?"

"Well, if you leave for a month, that means you're not living there anymore."

"Oh… Well with humans, they keep their living places until they give it to someone else. I guess I need to relearn the way things are done here in the forest."

"I'm sure it'll be fine if someone returns. You can explain that this was your old home," Maple added.

"Alright," I said.

"It's getting a little late now," said Maple, pointing at the sun. Its position near the horizon indicated that it was late afternoon. "You should gather some leaves to make a bed for tonight," Maple suggested. "I'll help you out," she offered.

"Good idea," I answered.

As we gathered leaves for a bed, I told Maple some stories about my adventures. We had some good laughs together. After we made my bed, we headed back to the field and to her garden for berries for dinner.

"How did you grow all this?" I asked as we entered the rows of berry bushes.

"I, uh… have this special power to grow plants. It's hard to explain."

"Can you show me?"

"It only works when the sun is overhead and shining the brightest. I'll show you some other day."

She went to the Figy berries and plucked a bunch with her tail. "I know you love these," she said, grinning.

"You got that right, thanks," I said. We both started eating the Figy berries. The hot, spicy juice burned my tongue in a delightful way. "These are perfect!" I exclaimed between bites. She smiled sweetly at me. I looked back down at the Figy berries before my cheeks turned to the color of said berries.

After we finished eating, we continued to talk until an Umbreon passed by the garden.

"Hey, dear!" the Umbreon called out.

"Hey!" Maple responded cheerfully.

It took me a moment to realize what the Umbreon meant by "dear," and I instantly felt uncomfortable.

"Who's this?" Asked the Umbreon, padding up to us. His voice was naturally gruff and masculine, which sort of set me off.

"Spruce, this is my friend, Hickory. Hickory, this is my mate, Spruce."

I felt a wave of surprise pass through me, which was quickly replaced with jealousy and even some anger, and I struggled to stay calm on the outside. Maple had a mate?! I already didn't like this guy based off of his voice alone, and he's my friend's mate? I felt a sinking feeling develop in my stomach which wouldn't go away.

"Nice to meet you," said Spruce, but his voice sounded rather hollow.

"Uh… yeah, n-nice to meet you too," was my immediate, expected response, but on the inside meeting him didn't feel nice at all. "Maybe it's just a first impression kind of thing and he'll be cool once I get to know him, " I thought.

I sensed that Spruce was staring at me for a few seconds without saying anything. I instantly wondered what he was speculating about me, given how much I was already speculating about him.

"I've never seen you around here before," Spruce started, "what are you here for?"

"That's a rather hostile question to ask," I thought to myself. "I used to live here when I was young," I answered. "Maple and I were childhood friends. I was taken away from here when I was young and I grew up somewhere else, but now I'm back here." I didn't feel like explaining the whole human thing with him.

"Okay, well I'm the night guard in this area. I protect everyone from the Raiders at night. Don't you worry, you're in good paws," he stated. I thought he sounded pretty arrogant. "My beautiful mate would agree, right Maple?"

Maple blushed slightly from her mate's words, but said, "Of course."

I was churning on the inside with both jealousy and resentment of Spruce.

"Maple, shouldn't you be heading home?" Spruce suggested to his mate.

"Yeah, I guess," said Maple turning around and starting to walk off.

I didn't want her to go yet; I still wanted to talk to her about more things.

"Bye, Hickory!" Maple called over her shoulder cheerfully.

"Bye!" I answered in a tone of false, forced cheerfulness.

Just when they turned around a tree, I saw Spruce nuzzle Maple on the cheek as he asked her, "What did you do today, love?" Then they were out of sight and earshot, but certainly not out of mind.

I moped back to my quiet, empty den, alone. Despite my journey here and the brand new bed of soft leaves, I couldn't fall asleep easily because I kept thinking about Maple. I felt really, really sad that I couldn't be with my best friend. We were always closer than most friends were, though I didn't think about it back then. Did she not feel for me at all? But, I was gone for years. What did I expect, that she would stay alone forever, waiting for a long lost friend who mysteriously disappeared? She would naturally find a mate; most Pokémon do.

But I wanted to be with her. The desire was burning me from the inside. Angry rants about Spruce filled my thoughts. No, these are bad thoughts; I should not be thinking so selfishly. Maple's still my friend, and that'll always be true. But… I love her…


	2. Chapter 2

Maple's POV

The sun's rays entered through the entrance of the den I shared with my mate, Spruce, and woke me up by landing on my leaf-like tail. I was alone in the den because Spruce was still on night watch for Raiders. He had to be on night watch for five days until he switched off with a different Pokémon for five days. I wished he could be with me every night. Sure, he was protecting everyone, but I really didn't feel safe unless he was here with me at night.

The soft padding of paws outside the den indicated Spruce's return. "Morning, love," Spruce said to me, coming up to me and nuzzling me on the cheek.

"Morning," I replied, "how was the watch?"

"Boring," he answered with a yawn. "No raiders for the fifth day in a row."

"Maybe we don't need a night guard anymore," I suggested hopefully.

"Maybe…"

Besides not having him with me at night, being the night guard also meant we couldn't spend much time together during the day because he had to sleep.

"I'm exhausted. Could you get me some berries?" yawned Spruce.

"Alright," I complied.

I headed out to my garden to pick some berries for Spruce. Our den was only a minute's walk from the field. The sun, normally partially obstructed by the treetops around our den, shined brighter and brighter as I approached the wide open field. The warm, unobstructed sunlight felt great on my fur and leaf-like tail.

I picked a bunch of Iapapa berries and carried them back to the den with my tail. I personally was not very fond of their sour taste, but these were Spruce's favorite type of berry.

When I arrived back at the den, I found Spruce fast asleep on the bed. I sighed and placed the berries at his side. Then I headed back to the garden to tend to the plants.

I arrived at the field and started heading over to the garden when I heard the rough pounding of paws behind me. I looked towards the sound and spotted a Luxio and a Houndour with snarls on their faces, dashing towards me. I felt fear course through me.

The Houndour shot fire out of its muzzle at me. I shrieked as the stream of flames whizzed past my shoulder.

"Wh-why are you attacking me?!" I yelped at the aggressors.

The two hostile Pokémon gave no response. The Luxio's fur crackled with energy, indicating an incoming electric attack. I turned tail and ran, but the Luxio's attack hit me. I felt electricity shoot throughout my body. The shock didn't hurt too at the spot of impact, but it made me feel numb and tingly all over and the force of it made me fall. Before I could get up, the Houndour tackled me and pinned me to the ground.

"HELP!" I screamed as loud as I could. The Houndour growled and shushed me by pinning my throat down to the ground. It used its other forepaw to hit me hard in the right shoulder, causing me to whimper pathetically. I closed my eyes and braced myself for whatever attack was coming next.

Suddenly the weight of the Houndour's body was no longer on me. I heard the Houndour whine in pain and the release of another electric attack by the Luxio. Slowly opening my eyes, I raised my head out of the grass and saw two Pokémon fighting. One of them was the Luxio and the other was a Flareon. The Luxio charged at the Flareon for a tackle, but the Flareon rolled onto its back and extended its paws out, sending the Luxio up and over and into a sprawling heap behind the Flareon. The Flareon got up and came over to my side.

"Are you alright, Maple?" asked Hickory, offering a paw to help me up.

"Uh… kinda," I said shakily as I stood up.

"I'll take care of these guys, don't worry," he assured.

The Houndour was up again and shot fire at us, and Hickory fired flames out of his own muzzle. I could feel the intense heat on my fur. Hickory's attack overpowered the Houndour's, sending the Houndour flying back from the force. Then the Luxio ran towards us. Suddenly Hickory's tail started glowing a bright white light. He ran up to the Luxio and swung his tail at it. Hickory's normally fluffy tail slammed into the Luxio's side as if it was made out of rock. The Luxio cried out from the impact as it was knocked back and into the ground beside the Houndour. The Houndour and the Luxio both stood up, though injured. Hickory growled at them.

They stared at Hickory for a moment, but when Hickory started another fire attack they turned tail and fled. "There we go," Hickory muttered, extinguishing the flames in his muzzle.

I was shaking with fear but breathed a sigh of relief as the two brutes fled the scene. "Thank you so much," I breathed, relieved.

"You're welcome," he said proudly.

"I don't know what would have happened to me if you weren't here…" I muttered.

"Are you alright? Anything broken?" he inquired, concerned.

I tried moving around. "I think everything's fine, except my shoulder kind of hurts."

"I'll get you some Oran berries from the garden," he offered, beginning to head over to the garden.

Despite my hurt shoulder, I followed him to the Oran berry bushes, trying not to wince. He looked at me concernedly for a moment, but relaxed when he saw that I could walk fine. However, he came up to my side and helped me walk anyway, which I didn't mind. His fur was surprisingly warm and comforting.

When we got near an Oran berry bush, Hickory plucked an Oran berry with his tail. He hesitated for a moment, then brought it to my mouth. I felt a bit awkward from eating from his tail, but was really grateful.

"Thanks," I said.

"Y-yeah, you're welcome," said Hickory, sounding nervous. Why was that? I glanced over at his face but he was looking away. As I remembered, he never did those things when we were younger, but I guessed being shy is just the way he is now. Oh well.

I felt strength return to my limbs and the pain fade slightly, enough for me to walk on my own steadily.

"Feel better?" asked Hickory.

"Much better," I replied.

"Any soreness?"

"A little…"

"You should probably rest now. It's the best way to recover."

"You're right. I should head back to my den now. Want to come with me?" I asked.

"Sure, I'd be glad to," he said.

The sunlight grew dimmer due to the treetops as we left the field and headed towards my den. "Who were the attackers?" Hickory asked during the walk.

"I don't know. I've never seen them before. My guess is that they're Raiders," I said.

"What exactly are Raiders?" he asked. "Someone mentioned them to me but I didn't really understand."

"The Raiders are bad guys who recently started coming around this area and attacking Pokémon," I answered.

"But why?" He asked.

"I'm not really sure. Maybe Spruce can tell you," I said. Hickory just shrugged at that. "So, what were you doing before… well, the… attack?" I asked awkwardly.

"Um… I came here to hopefully find you at your garden," he said, a little shyly.

"Good thing you came," I said with a smile, "I don't know what would have happened if it weren't for you."

"No problem, anything for you," said Hickory; the last part came out a bit quieter.

"Here's my den," I said, pointing with my paw.

Spruce was fast asleep on the bed. As we walked into the den, he woke up. When he saw us, he sprang up onto his feet and yelled, "What have you done with her?!"

Hickory jumped in surprise from Spruce's reaction. "What are you talking about?" I asked Spruce.

"Maple, why are you hurt?" Spruce demanded.

"I was attacked by two random Pokémon while I was at the field. I think they were Raiders. Hickory showed up and saved me by defeating them."

"Yeah," Hickory confirmed.

Spruce narrowed his eyes on Hickory. An awkward moment passed.

"Hickory is my old friend. He would never hurt me," I assured, taking a guess on what Spruce was staring for.

Spruce continued to stare at Hickory for a few awkward moments without saying anything.

"Okay, I'm gonna head out now," said Hickory, "take care, Maple."

"Alright, see you Hickory," I responded. I turn to face him as he left, and he looked confused and also a bit annoyed. He quickly shuffled out of my den.

"Who were these two strange Pokémon who attacked you?" Spruce demanded.

"It was a Luxio and a Houndour," I said.

"Alright, I know for sure there are a Luxio and a Houndour who are part of the Raiders. If I ever see one of them, I'm gonna kill them!" Spruce growled.

I was taken aback by his brutal proclamation. "I-I don't want you going out there killing Pokémon…" I said softly.

"Those guys hurt my mate, they deserve it," he answered staunchly.

"Maybe… if you teach me how to fight I could protect myself and this would never happen again," I suggested.

Spruce seemed confused by this suggestion. "You don't need to learn how to fight," he said dismissively.

"Yes I do, then I won't get hurt like this again," I said.

"I'll always be here to protect you," said Spruce. "You're too beautiful to have to fight. I promise I'll never let this happen again."

"Why can't you teach me?" I complained.

"You're not meant to fight," said my mate.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm here to fight for you. I promise you won't ever be alone again. I'm going to tell them I'm quitting night watch. Then I'll always be with you to protect you."

I sighed and didn't bring up the topic again.


	3. Chapter 3

Hickory's POV

"Hey, Hickory!" shouted a voice from above. I looked up and saw an orange, flame colored wing. A second later, the owner of the wing flew out of the tree.

"Hey Falc!" I called.

"I'm heading to the Guard meeting, want to come?" Falc offered.

"What's the Guard?" I asked.

"Isn't it kind of obvious?" said Falc, rolling his eyes.

"You protect Pokémon, I guess… but from what?"

"From the Raiders!" exclaimed Falc proudly. "I'm the captain of the Guard. Want to come to the meeting?"

"Alright, sure. What do you do at the meetings?"

"We discuss any recent Raider activity and train. We meet about once every five days. Follow me," said Falc, taking off.

I followed Falc through the forest. He was remarkably skilled at flying low amongst the trees and not colliding with any of them. We eventually arrived at a small clearing next to a river. Several Pokémon were already there. There was a Rapidash, a Herdier, and… ugh _, Spruce…_

 _Maybe I should give him a chance instead of judging him already. I've only been in his presence for a combined total of 5 minutes… Even though he is Maple's mate..._

"Captain Falcon, you're late!" Exclaimed the Rapidash.

"Sorry, I was asking a friend to come with me. Meet my old friend Hickory."

"Hey there, I'm Hooves," the Rapidash introduced, "nice to meet you!"

"I'm Cedar," said the Herdier.

The was a moment of silence as everyone turned to Spruce, expecting him to introduce himself. "You already know me," Spruce said curtly. I merely nodded once, averting my eyes from him. There was an awkward silence.

"So, any Raiders spotted recently?" Falc opened the meeting with. "I haven't seen any since the last meeting."

"Nope," said both Hooves and Cedar.

"Nothing during night watch," said Spruce.

"I encountered two of them," I spoke up. Everyone turned to me. "It was a Luxio and a Houndour," I started. "They were attacking a Pokémon for what seemed like no reason so I fought them off. The Pokémon I saved told me they were Raiders." I remembered a question that I was thinking about since the attack on Maple. "Falc, why do the Raiders attack us? What are their intentions?" I asked.

"I don't really know," said Falc. "They just come and attack us for no reason, really."

"They probably have a reason, but we don't know it," Cedar spoke up.

"Have you tried, I don't know… asking?" I suggested.

"It's a little hard to talk when they're trying to rip your head off!" Hooves answered.

"Alright, let's start training," said Falc.

"Wait Falc, before we start, I need to ask you something important," Spruce interrupted.

"What is it?" Falc gruffed.

"I want to quit night watch duty," Spruce stated.

Falc narrowed his eyes on Spruce, evidently surprised. "Why is that?" Falc inquired.

"I need to spend more time with my mate," Spruce answered. Cedar rolled his eyes and Hooves snorted. Spruce shot an angry look at Hooves.

"Well… if you say so," said Falc. "But I thought you love night watch."

"Yeah, you love to brag to everyone about how you protect them at night," Hooves added.

"Then who's up for night watch? Hickory, want to try?" Falc offered.

"Uh, sure, I guess I'll try," I said hesitantly.

"Uh, never mind, I'll continue night watch," Spruce spoke up hastily.

"But what about your mate?" asked Hooves.

"I have to keep my duty," Spruce said firmly.

"And your bragging rights," Hooves added. Falc and Cedar snickered while Spruce scowled.

"Alright, where was I? Oh yeah, training. Hickory, let's see how strong you are before you join the Guard. Who do you want to fight?" asked Falc.

Spruce stepped forward. "I'll fight you," he challenged.

I felt anger arise from his challenge. "You're on," I answered.

"Whoa, a rivalry already!"exclaimed Hooves. I ignored him; Spruce glared at him. "What? Rivalries are good. It helps both of you get stronger." Falc looked at Hooves weirdly, as if such a deep statement was unheard of from the joyous Rapidash.

The other three stepped back to the edges of the clearing as the two of us assumed fighting stances.

Spruce started the battle by charging straight at me with a tackle. In response, I also tackled. I found out the hard way that Spruce was stronger than I was. The impact was quite painful and I was flung back while he kept his footing. Judging by the strength, I presumed he knew Take Down. Spruce followed up with another Take Down. This time, as he approached me, I rolled onto my back and extended my four paws up into the air. Spruce was flung up and over me, landing in the ground behind me with a grunt.

I quickly got up and used Flamethrower at him. Unfortunately, he was up in time and evaded the attack. Spruce came at me with Take Down again. This time, I tensed the muscles in my tail. My tail grew firm and emitted a bright white light. I turned around and flung my tail at the oncoming Spruce. There was a resonant thud as my Iron Tail attack collided with Spruce's Take Down. In the end Spruce flung back into the ground. I grinned from the success of my Iron Tail.

Spruce finally changed it up and used Bite, making his teeth temporarily grow into large fangs, and pounced towards me. I tried to hop out of the way, but he was faster than I expected, catching my tail in his fangs and biting down hard. I yelped from the pain flaring up from my tail.

I quickly turned my head to face him and unleashed a Flamethrower. He cried out and released my tail, darting away from me. However, he quickly spun on his paw, faced me again, and leaped at me faster than I could direct my flamethrower and tackled me to the ground. I let out an "Oof!" as the wind was knocked out of me. I struggled to get him off of me.

"Give up," Spruce muttered in a gruff voice, low enough that only I could hear.

His demand heightened my need to defeat him. I tried but couldn't focus my tail muscles for Iron Tail.

"You're weak," Spruce taunted, again quiet enough that the others were unaware.

That got me real angry, but I was able to focus on the battle. I heated up my entire body, which got Spruce to lighten his hold a little. The I focused the heat into my muzzle and blasted his face with Fire Blast. Spruce was thrown off of me with a yell. He landed on his paws, but by then I was up on mine and hit him with Flamethrower, unleashing an unending stream of hot fire.

"Alright Hickory, that's enough," said Falc.

Good thing, because I was too tired to continue my Flamethrower for more than another second. I stopped my attack, breathing heavily, and saw that Spruce was rolling on the grass to extinguish the fire. It looked pretty amusing.

"Congrats Hickory, you're now a member of the Guard!" Falc declared.

"Nice tricks," said Cedar.

"Awesome moves man," said Hooves.

I beamed from the praise. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Spruce on the ground scowling at me.

"You're really strong!" Hooves complimented.

"Thanks, I was trained how to fight by humans when I was younger," I said.

Really? That's cool! What are humans like?" asked Hooves.

"Most are pretty nice, but there are some who are evil," I answered.

"Was your human good or evil?" Cedar asked.

"Well… he was good at first, but unfortunately turned bad as he grew up," I explained.

"Hmm… that's a shame," Cedar remarked.

"Yeah, I left him after that and came here. This place was my original home," I said.

"Hickory and I were friends before he was caught," Falc added.

"Back when I was an Eevee and you were a Fletchling," I said.

"I can't imagine the brave, fearless Captain Falcon of the Guard as a little sing songy Fletchling!" Hooves laughed.

"Falc's name used to be Fletchy, and I do remember him singing during sunrise before," I said, remembering old times.

"Seriously? Falc, I have a whole new outlook on you now. Can I call you Fletchy?" Hooves asked mockingly.

"No!" Falc answered, embarrassed. "I changed my name to something that instilled the proper respect for a reason."

"If you say so, Captain Fletchy!" Hooves exclaimed joyously. Everyone laughed except Spruce, who had just smothered the last of the flames.


	4. Chapter 4

Maple's POV

It's been five days since the end of Spruce's night watch, and we've spent every minute together since then, except for the Guard meeting he went to three days ago. I had a good day with Spruce today. We picked berries together, gathered new leaves for our bed, and walked around the forest together to observe some changes in scenery. It was dark now which meant he normally would have to start the night watch and sleep through the day tomorrow. I know he loves being the night guard - he's always very delighted when Pokémon praised him for his work - but he quit the job for me, so that we could spend more time togeth-

"Good night, love. I have to start the night watch now," said Spruce.

"What? I thought you said you're not going to do the night watch anymore so we could spend more time together!" I complained.

"Uh… I asked, but there was no one else who wanted to take my place..."

"You said you would stay with me and protect me from the Raiders from now on, all the time," I brought up.

"But we can't just have no night guard," Spruce justified. "I have to watch for the Raiders at night. It's my duty."

"W-what if the raiders come and attack me?" I said.

"I'll catch any raiders before they come anywhere near here," he said.

"B-but… Alright fine," I said sadly.

"Sorry about this, dear," Spruce said quietly as he left the den. I sighed, fact that he was continuing the night watch was upsetting, but the broken promise was even more upsetting.

 _C'mon Maple, don't be selfish. Spruce has to protect everyone, not just you,_ I told myself.

The next morning, I went to the field to get Spruce breakfast. I pick some Iapapa berries with my tail and was about to head back to my den when I spotted a Figy berry bush that was was not growing so well. I closed my eyes and focused on the sun's rays falling on my leaf-like tail and the leaves on my head. I captured energy from the sun's rays then directed the energy into the wilted plant in front of me. Feeling the energy leave off of the ends of my leaves, I opened my eyes.

"Wow, you made it grow!" I heard someone say. I jumped in surprise then looked in the direction of the voice.

"Oh, hey Hickory," I greeted my friend with.

"Hey Maple, sorry if I startled you," he apologized.

"It's alright," I said.

"So that's how you grow the plants," he remarked.

"Yeah, it's something I can do only when the sun is shining brightly," I explained.

"I've heard of synthesis being used to grow plants, but I've never seen it before," he thought aloud.

"Huh? What's synthesis?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, that's the name that humans gave to the move that you just used. Sorry, I forgot that you wouldn't be familiar with the names of moves."

"So humans give names to all the different things that pokémon do?"

"Yeah. The move that you used is called synthesis. It's normally used by grass types to heal themselves by absorbing the sun's energy. I find it really interesting that you can use it to grow plants."

"Wait, grass type? What do you mean by 'type?'"

"Hmm… explaining this is a bit odd… alright, well humans have assigned each Pokémon species a type, sometimes two types, and every move has a type. Types kind of describe the properties of a Pokémon or move. For example, you're a grass type and I'm a fire type. Some types are super effective on others and some are not very effective on others. If I attacked you with flamethrower, a fire type attack, it would hurt you a lot because fire is super effective on grass. If you were hit by an electric attack, it wouldn't hurt as much because electric if not very effective on grass."

"This has to do with fighting?"

"Yes. Types are important in battles. Often one pokémon may already have an advantage over the other due to the type they are."

This stuff was really interesting to me. _If I learned all about this, it would be a step towards learning how to protect myself in a battle..._ "How do you know what is strong or weak on what?" I asked.

"Well… I know all the matchups by heart after training and battling a lot while I was with humans, but most of the type matchups make sense if you think about it."

"So you have a lot of experience fighting?"

"Oh yeah, humans train and command Pokémon to fight for fun in the human world. It's called battling."

 _If Spruce won't teach me how to fight, maybe Hickory will,_ I thought. "Will you teach me how to battle?" I asked. "I want to be able to protect myself from situations like the raider attack a few days ago…"

"I'll be glad to teach you," he said immediately.

His willingness to teach me made me feel really happy on the inside. "Thank you! I really appreciate it," I said with a smile.

"Sure thing! I would love to pass on my skills to you," he responded happily.

"Awesome! What'll we do first?"

"Well, before we start, you should probably put down those berries in your tail."

I suddenly felt the berries in my tail, having forgotten them. _What're these for?_ "Oh crap! I forgot I was getting these berries for Spruce. I gotta head back to my den. I'll be right back!" I said, running off to my den. I almost squeezed the Iapapa berries while holding them tight as I ran.

Hickory's POV

"Alright!" I called back. I followed Maple with my eyes as she quickly left the field. _Oh, how I wished she didn't have Spruce…_ I thought, but I quickly shook the negative thought away.

I was really glad she asked me to teach her how to battle. It gave me good reason to hang out with my old friend, and it reassured me that she'll never get in grave danger from the raiders like the time five days ago. I don't know how I would have dealt with losing her after just returning home and seeing her again after so many years...

Maple came back from her den after a few minutes. "I'm ready to start training," she said. "What'll you teach me? Will you teach me how to breath fire like you?" she asked semi-jokingly.

I chuckled and said, "Not flamethrower, but there are equally cool things I can teach you. But, the first thing to learn is dodging. I think dodging is the most important skill in a battle because avoiding getting hurt will keep you going strong. Your survival comes first, not defeating the opponent. We'll get to attacking later, but dodging comes first."

"I understand. I was expecting to learn how to attack first, but learning to dodge first makes a lot of sense. Just out of curiousity, what kind of cool attacks will I be able to do?" she asked eagerly.

"Heh, we'll get to that when we get to that. Trust me, it will be cool though."

"Okay…" she said, feeling disappointed at first, but scratching that and going along with my plan. "So, what do we do first for dodging?"

"I'm gonna try to tackle you, and you have to dodge in any way possible," I said, planning to start off by evaluating her by observing what she was capable of. "Then I'll tell you if you're dodging in an effective way or not. Ready?" I asked, putting some distance between us and facing her.

"Ready," she nodded determinedly.

I ran at her at a moderate pace then leaped at her. Unfortunately, she kind of panicked and didn't move enough in time. I tried to slow down by extending my paws forward, but still went barreling into her. "Oof!" she exclaimed as we went tumbling across the field.

We ended up in a heap several feet from the starting point with me lying on top of her. I… Kind of lied there for a moment… Her fur felt really soft and comfortable…

"Ugh… Um, Hickory, could you get off of me…? Unless keeping me down is part of the tackle..."

Hearing her voice, I frantically shook my head to clear my thoughts and rapidly got off of her, looking away so that she couldn't see me blushing. I really shouldn't be thinking such things…

Maple looked pretty shaken. "Well, that didn't work…" she said quietly.

"I'm so sorry, Maple. Are you alright?" I asked.

"I'm okay, just… That was a complete fail for me… I didn't even move..."

"Well, I shouldn't have tackled you at full speed, and I should have gave you an instruction," I said, trying not to blame her. _I guess being a trainer teaching a new pokémon how to battle for the first time is harder than it looks._ "I shouldn't've started immediately with tackling you. I'm a bad teacher…"

"You're not a bad teacher at all," she disagreed. "Let's try this again. This time I promise I'll move," she said confidently.

"Are you sure?" I asked, that being the natural thing to say.

"Of course I'm sure, I can't give up right after we just started!" Maple exclaimed.

I immediately felt guilty for implying that she was weak. "Alright, this time I'll move slower. When I get near you, I want you to jump away to one side. Do you think you can handle that?"

"I'll try my best," she answered.

"Actually, I'll demonstrate first. Run straight at me," I requested, putting some distance between the two of us.

"Right now?"

"Yup, charge at me. Don't worry, I promise I'll be out of the way by the time you reach me."

She nodded and ran at full speed towards me. As she approached, I crouched and tensed my leg muscles. When she got close enough, I sprang myself to my left, landing on my four paws. Maple stopped running and turned around to face me. With the specific actions fresh in my mind, I found it much easier to clearly explain how she should dodge. "Alright, now it's your turn. As I come near you, crouch down and tense your leg muscles so you can spring out of my path."

"Okay, I'm ready," she said, beginning to crouch.

I ran towards her, this time slower than last time. She successfully leaped out of the way, although it was a little too close for comfort, with her tail brushing softly against my side.

"How was that?" she asked.

"Good, but it was a little too late. If you went a little slower we might have collided. Try dodging a little earlier next time," I suggested.

"Okay, I will. Come at me again please," she said, crouching down again.

I ran at her again, but this time she dodged a little early, so I had enough time to change my course slightly and tackle her where she landed.

"Hey!" she exclaimed as I knocked her down.

"That's what happens if you dodge too early," I responded with a playful smile. "Your opponent will be able to change direction and still get you."

"Okay, I understand," she said as she got up and walked a small distance away. "Try to tackle me again. I will get this right!" she announced determinedly.

It took several more tries, with several more collisions, but soon she was able to dodge consistently, not too fast, not too slow. I was really enjoying this time with her. She seemed to be brimming with eagerness for learning these skills. I also felt pride in her progress since I was her teacher. Oh, and tackling my friend was pretty fun too, I must say.

After getting the hang of dodging to the side from a running opponent, I got her started on a different scenario. "I'm going to jump at you like this," I said, jumping into the air and landing hard on a spot on the ground. "I want you to dodge by hopping backwards. Could you jump at me so I can demonstrate?"

"Sure," she said. She took a few steps back and jumped towards my current position. I hopped backwards so that she landed where I was before, then I instinctively opened my muzzle like always do after performing this kind of dodge. Luckily I caught myself and only a tiny wisp of fire came out of my muzzle, which fizzled out in the air near her.

"Eek!" Maple squeaked as she felt the heat. "What was that for?"

"Sorry, that was an accident! I'm just really used to following up this dodge with Flamethrower because the natural response would be to attack your opponent right after they land," I explained frantically.

"Okay, that makes sense. That fire was pretty scary," she remarked.

It only then hit me that I had the power to seriously hurt her during this training. If that flamethrower came out, it would hurt her just as much as… water moves hurt for me, and that hurt _a lot_. I tried to push away the image of my friend on fire. _If I accidentally hit Maple with my flamethrower, then she would never love me…_

"So… is it my turn to try?" I heard her ask.

"Oh, right," I said, clearing out my thoughts as best I could. "For now, just work on the dodging part, and we'll get to the attacking part later."

After that dodge was done well a few times, we moved on to some other dodges. We took a break at some point for lunch, getting some berries from her garden. Together we picked some Oran berries, Leppa berries, and my favorite - Figy berries. I noticed that there were more Figy berry bushes than any other type. "Why are there more Figy berries than the rest?" I asked as we sat down in the soft grass of the field to eat.

"I guess I was thinking of you and your love of Figy berries when I first started the garden long ago," she recalled.

 _Wow, she was thinking of me?!_ That was music to my ears,making me feel really warm and lighthearted on the inside.

"So how am I doing so far?" Maple asked me after we finished eating.

"You're doing very good. I'd say you have a natural talent for this so far."

She blushed slightly from my compliment. My mind suddenly started working hard on figuring out if her blush meant anything special, but I passed it off as simply a response to a compliment. "Thanks. I'm ready to continue," she said.

"You're not feeling tired at all?" I asked.

"Nope," she answered.

"Well if you ever start getting tired, we'll stop," I offered.

"Okay. Don't worry," she said.

We continued our dodge training with different tackles and dodges. Eventually she was good enough that I would try to tackle her one way, she would dodge, I would follow up with a different tackle, and she would still dodge successfully. Eventually during the afternoon we were both starting to tire. I was honestly quite surprised that she was able to keep up the same endurance as me, but I was glad as well. She would easily learn to protect herself with the determination she showed today.

"Alright, I think this is enough for today," I said.

"I can still practice a little more, I'm not too tired yet," Maple stated.

"I'm sure you can, but let's not push it. We don't need to train too intensely. Any more and this would remind me of the days right before a gym battle," I remarked with a chuckle.

"What's a gym battle?" asked Maple.

"Oh, a gym battle is an important battle for young trainers in the human world where they battle a specific strong trainer." We sat down and I went on to explain the journey process a little more. Maple was fascinated by it all.

"Seems like the humans really depended on you. Did you ever feel like you were just doing hard work for them?" she asked me.

"Not really, at least not during this journey while my trainer was still young. I had a blast back then. Those were the good old days. Things got less fun as my trainer got older, after our journey, but the journey was really fun."

When we realized that the sun was starting to go down, Maple said she'd better get back to her den. "Today was really awesome. Can we train again here tomorrow?" she asked enthusiastically.

"Of course we can, I look forward to it."

"Great, see you tomorrow!" she said.

"See ya!"

As she left, I reflected on the day with her. The training and talking were both really fun.

We were certainly still good friends, that's for sure. I was glad that my feelings for her weren't getting in the way of our friendship for the most part.


	5. Chapter 5

Maple's POV

"Hey dear," I said to my mate as he entered our den in the morning. "I got some breakfast for you already." I indicated the Iapapa berries at the side of the nest.

"Thanks, love, what would I do without you?" He came up to me and nuzzled me softly before starting on the berries.

After he was asleep, I headed out to the field for my second day of training with Hickory. Training with Hickory was the most fun I've had in a long time. Things have gotten a lot less stagnant ever since my old friend came back. Even though it was many years ago, I can still remember how lonely I felt when he first disappeared without warning. Hopefully he'll never suddenly disappear again.

I arrived at the field and found Hickory there, waiting patiently for me. "Morning Hickory!" I called.

"Hey Maple!" he called back, smiling at me. "You're looking great today!"

"What kind of training do you have planned for me today?" I asked, eager to start.

"We covered how to dodge yesterday, so today I'm going to teach you how to tackle," he explained. "As I said earlier, you probably won't be tackling as your main attack because there are much cooler things you can use as attacks. However, it's useful to know what your opponents might do to you, and just as a backup move."

He walked away from me and said, "Okay, tackle me."

"How should I tackle you?" I asked, confused.

"Anyway you can think of," he answered simply.

"Okay…" I started running towards him at full speed. He braced himself for impact. As I got closer and closer, I started feeling fearful of the inevitable impact. As I got really close, I closed my eyes instinctively. I felt my whole body smack into him nearly head on and we both fell onto the ground.

"Oww…" I groaned, lying on the ground on my side. _I hope it didn't hurt for him as much..._

"Yeah… so the most important thing to know when tackling is how to not hurt yourself…" he explained through gritted teeth. He pushed himself up and offered me his paw to help me up.

"That would definitely be very good to know..." I agreed, rubbing my head at the spot I hit him with.

"Although many Pokémon make their main impact point their head, I would recommend against that for you. It takes practice to protect your head!"

I laughed at that. "Now I know that firsthand," I said with a grin.

"Doing head on tackles is strong, but it's for Pokémon doing more advanced tackling, such as Take Down. For you and me, we're only using basic tackles. I have much cooler moves for you to use as your main offense."

 _I wonder what kind of cool things he'll teach me later,_ I thought.

"For basic tackling, it's better to hit using parts that will hurt you the least, such as your shoulder or legs. I'll demonstrate against that tree," he said, pointing towards a small tree with a dark trunk about half a tail's length wide at the edge of the clearing, the kind of tree that has needles instead of leaves.

He ran towards the tree at a quick speed. Just as he was about to hit it, I noticed that he angled himself to the right slightly making his shoulder impact the trunk. The tree shook a fair bit and some needles came loose, falling to the ground around him.

"Your turn," he said as he walked back towards me.

 _I got this!_ I thought as I ran towards the tree. However, I started to panic when I realized my head was on a collision course with the dark tree trunk. Turning to the right to get my head out of the way, I ended up whizzing past the tree. _Uh-oh._ I frantically tried to slow down, almost colliding with another tree. As I walked back towards Hickory, I could feel my cheeks turn red, so I looked down. "That was embarrassing…" I mumbled.

Hickory smiled. "Don't worry about it, it was just your first try. Try again," he encouraged. I lifted my head up, his words uplifting my spirit. "Thanks," I said, returning the smile.

This time I successfully hit the tree with my shoulder, though Hickory said my head came a bit close to the trunk. I didn't doubt that. After a few more times I got the hang of it though.

"You should probably stop now," Hickory interrupted as I was about to tackle the tree again, "your shoulder might be getting sore."

My shoulder felt worked, but not sore. "It's fine. I'll start trying it with my other shoulder now," I said confidently.

After some time, and after the tree's dark green needles littered the ground around it, Hickory said, "Okay, how about you tackle me now."

"Um… I don't want to hurt you," I said hesitantly.

"It won't hurt that much. It would help if you tackle an actual target rather than a stationary tree," Hickory explained.

"Okay," I said, then I ran towards him. I felt confident that I could do this, so I didn't close my eyes. Just as we were about to collide, I shifted my body to the side so that my shoulder was in front and my head safe. The force of my run sent Hickory back a few feet, but with him no longer against my shoulder, I lost my balance and fell down. Glancing up, I saw Hickory walking towards me, unscathed.

I got up as he approached me. "I'm fine," I reassured. _This is harder than I thought, but I'll get this right._

"Yeah, so that's the difference between Pokémon and trees. Pokémon move but trees don't," he said with a grin. I chuckled and nodded.

"How should I keep my balance?" I asked.

"I'll show you," he said. He started running then pretended to tackle something with his shoulder. He followed up by spreading his forepaws out in front of him.

"So you just spread your forepaws out to keep your balance?" I asked.

"Yeah, but you also have to use your hind legs to slow down," he added.

I tried doing the same thing, but I tripped and fell forward. Undeterred, I tried again. Hickory pointed out how to improve, and after several more times, I could do it.

"Ready to tackle me?" he asked, taking a defensive stance.

"Sure I am!" I said enthusiastically. I started running towards him. He grinned at me while I charged towards him and I grinned back. Moving my shoulder into position, I sent him flying a few feet back. I quickly spread my forepaws out to balance myself and dug my hind paws into the ground to slow down. My balancing was a little was shaky, but I didn't fall!

"Great job!" Hickory praised.

Tackling Hickory was a lot more fun than tackling the dark barked tree trunk. As I continued to practice tackling him and perfecting my balance, I noticed that Hickory always landed upright on his four paws. "How do you do land perfectly every time?" I asked.

"You just have to get used to being tackled into the air and shift your weight around to land standing up. It takes a bit of practice," he said.

"Can you tackle me so I can try that?" I requested.

Hickory immediately looked distressed. _He must not want me to get hurt, but I don't mind if I get hurt a little._

"If you're worried about hurting me, don't worry about it. This is training for battle, so I expect to get hurt a bit, and that's fine," I told him.

I watched him think hard for a few moments, then he nodded slowly, agreeing. "Ready?" he asked, preparing to tackle.

"Ready!" I answered, trusting that he wouldn't hurt me too much.

I grinned as he came running towards me, the same way he always did when I ran towards him, and he grinned back. I observed for a split second his perfect, practiced movements as he brought his shoulder forward to tackle me, then I when flying from the impact. I flailed around in the air, trying to get my paws below me but landed with an "Oof!" on my side, skidding along the ground a few feet.

Hickory was promptly at my side with a paw to help me up. "Are you hurt?" he asked anxiously.

"A bit, but I don't think it's a big deal," I responded casually. "Can I try again?"

He did his best to explain better then tackled me again. After a couple more fails he had us go back to me tackling him so he could demonstrate balancing in the air. It was lunch time when I finally succeeded once.

We went to my garden and picked plenty of Figy berries to eat. While we were eating, I said, "This training has been really fun so far!"

"Glad to hear it! You're making great progress so far too. It took me a lot longer to get the hang of tackling when I first learned," he said.

After lunch we moved on to something new. "So far all we've been doing are running tackles," said Hickory. "The strength of the tackle comes from the run. The other common type of tackle is where you aren't running at your target. Without a running start, it's best to attack with your forelegs. The strength of a stationary tackle comes from the push of your legs."

"Start with a strong leap from your hind legs," he explained, demonstrating the action, "and push your forelegs out forcefully to hit your target. Balancing is easier for this tackle because you won't be running forward super fast."

He had me try a few times without a target. It felt a little awkward leaping at nothing but air, but I quickly got the actions right.

"I think you're ready to tackle me," he decided.

"Here I go!" I said. I jumped at him put my forepaws in front of me, but my attack wasn't strong enough to knock him back, so we ended up rolling several feet together, coming to a stop in an awkward heap.

"Even though I failed, that was fun!" I laughed.

Hickory laughed too. "It sure was!" he agreed. I felt his warm fur move away from mine as he stood up. He lent a paw to help me up as well.

I faced him, ready to tackle him again. This time, I focused more on channeling my strength into my forelegs to push him away. However, I didn't leap hard enough with my hind legs. Hickory urged me to put my full strength into all my legs, and pretty soon I could knock him away. After that, we switched up the practice between both kinds of tackles and the dodges from yesterday.

"Even though you can now perform dodges and tackles well, you still need to practice quick decision making and quick reactions. Knowing what tackle to use and when to tackle are just as important as learning the actual tackle. In order to practice those skills, let's have a full on tackling and dodging battle," he suggested.

"Um… I'm not sure if I'm ready for a full battle," I said.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it quickly," he encouraged. "Think up a game plan for how you want to beat me."

Acknowledging that I was better at dodging than tackling, I decided to dodge much more and only tackle him when he was vulnerable. "Got it, I'm ready," I said, crouching down into a battle-ready stance.

"Then here we go!" Hickory announced. He ran towards me and I dodged with perfect timing. He slowed himself down as quick as he could, spun on his paw, and ran back towards me. I nimbly hopped to the side again. He stopped and turn quicker this time, then leapt toward me with extended forepaws. I hopped back twice and gleefully taunted, "Can't catch me!"

"Is that a challenge?" he asked playfully as he balanced himself from the stationary tackle.

This training reminded me of play fighting with Hickory when we were kits. I was having fun avoid his every attack, leaping just out of reach. On the fourth time though, I dodged too early, so he was able to change direction and hit me. It didn't hurt much, and I landed on my paws the way he taught me. Hickory followed up by leaping at me, and I swiftly hopped backwards. He landed right in front of me, the perfect opportunity for me to go on the offensive. I leaped at him, shot my forelegs out, and sent him flying back. He landed properly but I was already running towards him. I bashed him with my shoulder before he could hop out of the way.

I realized that the tackles he taught me today corresponded with the dodges he taught me yesterday. The battle went on in a series of tackles, dodges, and landing upright after getting hit. Eventually I was starting to feel really tired, but I kept on going, determined.

I landed a hit on Hickory, then started running towards the spot he would land at to tackle him again. He landed on his paws then proceeded to charge at me as well. I realized we were about to collide painfully a moment too late. We crashed into each other, but he was stronger so I was sent flying back. The pain at the impact spot distracted me so I couldn't land properly. In hindsight, I should have dodged rather than try to tackle him back.

I hastily started to get back up, but before I was standing Hickory came barrelling into me. In a quick decision, I grabbed his leg with one of mine and we both went rolling. Once we came to a stop Hickory stood up and pinned me down with his forepaws. Although I was exhausted, I gathered all the strength I could to push him off to my side. I rolled on top of him and tried to pin him down but couldn't keep him down. He batted my paw away and I collapsed on top of him, breathing heavily.

I rolled off of him and lied on the ground next to him. "That was fun!" I said happily.

"Y-yeah, it was," said Hickory quietly.

When I looked at him, he averted his eyes. _I guess he didn't think it was fun,_ I thought. If anything, he kind of sounded embarrassed though. I stood up and offered a paw to help him up.

"You did great," he complimented, seemingly not awkward anymore. "You were able to decide on the right moves under pressure."

"Thanks," I said with a smile. "I didn't feel very pressured though since it was just you."

"Hey, am I not strong enough? Jeez, what a way to treat your teacher!" he joked.

"That's not what I meant," I said even though I knew he was joking. "I felt safe because I knew you would never hurt me on purpose."

"Of course I would never do that," he confirmed. "Hmm… I'll have to think of some other way to prepare you for battle," he said.

The sky was turning orange now, so we ended training for the day and went for another meal.

"Can we continue training tomorrow?" I asked while we were eating.

"I won't be able to train with you tomorrow," he told me. "Tomorrow I'm going on a Guard patrol."

"Oh, when did you join the Guard?" I asked. I was planning on suggesting that he join since he's so good at fighting, but he was already ahead of me.

"Five days ago," he answered. "The captain of the Guard, Falc, was also my childhood friend. He brought me to the last meeting."

"I would imagine that you fit right in with the Guard," I said.

"I guess so," he said with a shrug. "Hey, once you I've taught you more stuff and you get strong enough, you can join the Guard too!" he proposed excitedly.

It was an interesting idea for a second, but I knew it wouldn't happen. "Nah, Spruce wouldn't want me to get hurt fighting Raiders," I explained, shaking my head.

Hickory's expression kind of turned sour. _Why was that? It can't be just because I said I wouldn't join. It would take more than that to make him feel angered…_

"It wouldn't be too dangerous for you once you know how to do everything," he disagreed. "Based on the progress you've made in two days, I'd say you're a natural at battling," he insisted.

 _Am I really that good? He must just be complimenting me._ "I can't be _that_ good…" I said.

"But you are! It takes most Pokémon at least a week to get good at tackling and dodging. You must have some natural talent. You were always faster than me when we were kits, you know," he insisted.

"Well, I'll see about joining the Guard later," I promised.

"Fair enough," he said.

"So,do you want to continue training in two days?" he asked later.

"Of course!" I agreed enthusiastically. "Training with you has been the most fun I've had in a long time!"

After we finished eating it was getting dark. "See you in two days!" Hickory said as headed off to his den.

"See ya!" I said. I trotted back to my den, excited for whatever move he would teach me next.


	6. Chapter 6

Hickory's POV

"Isn't this sunset beautiful?" she said.

It sure is, But you know who's more beautiful than the sunset?" I paused, then said, "You."

"Aww, thanks," she said cutely, curling her tail around mine.

We were sitting side by side at the field, our pelts touching softly. I shifted over to nuzzle her, and she nuzzled me back.

"This moment with you right now is perfect," I said, bringing my head closer to hers.

"Mmm hmm," she agreed, snuggling closer to me.

I felt something tap me on my right shoulder, but I ignored whatever it was. She was the only thing that mattered right now.

She lied down on the soft grass then patted the grass next to her, inviting me there. I gladly lied down next to her, snuggling up to her soft fur. We stared into each other's eyes lovingly.

I felt a rough push from my right. Annoyed, I broke my gaze with her to jerk my head in the other direction to see what was there, but there was nothing.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly.

"Nothing, everything's perfect," I said quietly, nuzzling her again.

She closed her eyes relaxingly and I did the same. I was enjoying the perfect moment when suddenly-

"WAKE UP HICKORY!"

I groaned, the beautiful sunset gone, replaced with the dark gray ceiling of my den, as well as some orange at the on the right side of my vision. I realized I was no longer on my leaf bed; the soft, pleasant feel on my side was replaced with the cold hard floor.

"Ugh… Falc? What is it?" _You ruined a perfect dream..._

"Time to start our Guard patrol! I tried waking you up twice already! Let's go!" he exclaimed, flapping his wings exasperatedly.

Peeking past him, I saw that the sky was a vibrant orange. I was not used to waking up this early. I liked sleeping in much better.

"It's so early…" I groaned, stretching my legs out.

"The sun's up, so it's not early at all! Let's go! I didn't think you were such a sleepyhead!"

As we left my den, I took notice of the old Hickory tree across from the entrance. _Maybe Maple can help me regrow it._

"What do we have to do?" I asked, yawning.

"We just patrol the area, make sure everything's normal. If we see anyone who looks suspicious or dangerous, we'll interrogate them."

"How do you judge if someone is suspicious looking or not?" I asked, not wanting to bother normal Pokémon.

Falc shrugged. "You'll be able to tell if someone's a Raider or not."

"But… you thought I was a Raider when I first came here," I recalled, giving him a questioning look.

"Well… sometimes I mess up, but very rarely."

"Alright, if you say so."

We started walking, or flying, around the area. The bright morning sun kept me awake for the most part, but I kinda felt sleepy when we entered shady areas with thick treetops.

We passed by an Arcanine mother with two Growlithe pups following her. She recognized Falc and smiled.

"Good morning, Captain Falcon. Are you on guard duty right now?"

"I sure am," Falc answered.

"We can't thank you enough for keeping us safe from those bad guys," she complimented.

"Why, thank you m'am! Don't you worry, as long as I'm here, the forest will be as safe as can be for you and your children."

"It's Captain Falcon!" one of the Growlithe pups whispered frantically to the other.

"Show me your moves!" the second kid requested excitedly to Falc, jumping for joy.

Falc chuckled and said "Sure." He flew up high into the sky, then engulfed his entire body in flames and came diving down. The two Growlithes had their eyes glued to Falc's flaming figure in amazement. As Falc approached the ground, he extinguished the flames, spread his wings out, landed on the ground on his feet, and bowed. The Growlithes whooped and cheered.

"I call that my Falcon Dive," said Falc proudly. I recognized the move as Flare Blitz, but I forgot that the human names for moves weren't used out in the wild.

"Again, again!" the pups chanted, jumping up and down in excitement.

"Now kids, I'm sure Captain Falcon and his friend have some important things to do today," said their mother.

One said, "Aw…" and the other said, "Okay…"

"Have a nice day!" said the Arcanine.

"Thanks, you too!" said Falc. As they were leaving, one of the Growlithes looked back at Falc. Falc winked at the Growlithe with a smile.

"Looks like you're quite the celebrity," I remarked.

"You bet," Falc responded proudly.

As we walked around the forest, many Pokémon greeted Falc and complimented him for his work. A trio of Mightyenas hanging out by a pond saluted Falc. Falc headed over to them and chatted with them. He introduced me as his "day guard in training."

After we left the pond, a Nidorino came up to us. "Uh… you're Captain Falcon of the Guard?" he asked.

"I sure am!" Falc responded gallantly.

When we arrived at the field with Maple's garden, I noticed that Falc was watching a Pidgeot who was soaring overhead. "Who's that?" I asked, not recognizing the Pidgeot.

Falc didn't answer for a few seconds. I was about to ask again when he said, "It's this Pidgeot I met yesterday. She's new around here."

When she got closer by, Falc waved his wing and called, "Hey Ariel!"

The Pidgeot turned to look at who had called her then came soaring down. "Hello," she said, landing nearby, "you're, um… Captain Falcon, right?"

"That's right! You can call me Falc though."

"What are you up to?"

"Oh the usual, doing the patrol, defeating bad guys and keeping everyone safe," said Falc. If you run into any Raiders, don't you worry! I'll be right there to save you!" Falc assured.

"If there's anyone who can stop The Raiders, it's you," Ariel complimented.

"You got that right! Hey, are you free tomorrow? Wanna hang by my place?" he asked in a blur.

"Uh, I'm already busy tomorrow, sorry," she said. "In fact, I was already heading somewhere. I gotta go now."

"Oh…" said Falc, his wings slumping down to his sides. "Well, maybe some other time?"

"Maybe," she said with a nod. "Catch ya later," she said, flying off.

Falc watched her flap her wings, take to the air, and gracefully glide away. I snickered.

"Hey, what are you laughing about?" Falc demanded.

"You're real cool with the ladies," I said sarcastically.

"When you love someone you have to just go for it," said Falc confidently.

I scoffed. "You just met her yesterday, you can't call that love, or even attraction. You gotta get to know someone first."

"You don't know what being in love is like," Falc accused.

"I do too!" I argued.

"Yeah? Who do _you_ like?" Falc inquired.

 _Uh-oh. I can't tell him I like Maple,_ I thought, panicking. "Uh… um… nobody…" I stammered.

"So you don't know what it's like," Falc restated.

"Hey, I used to, some time ago," I said.

"Whatever, let's just get back to patrolling," Falc said dismissively. I was glad to drop the subject. We continued our patrol through the forest, Falc continuing to greet the pokémon of our forest and introducing me. Everyone knew Falc. I soon got tired of meeting everyone we saw and protested. "You have to know everyone," Falc said, "otherwise how can you tell a raider apart from someone from our forest?"

 _I met a Persian, a Kangaskhan, and a Stantler. A Cinccino and a Lopunny. A Gogoat and a Slowbro. An Ampharos and um…an Azumarill with a few Marills, right. And then there was… hmm…_

"You don't belong here!"

I was snapped out of my thoughts to see Falc attack a Houndoom and Nidorino. His sudden, random attack startled me. _How does Falc know those guys are raiders?_ As Falc nosedived towards them, his body engulfed in flames, the Nidorino looked startled while the Houndoom shot a flamethrower at Falc. Falc shifted his body and avoided the attack. The Nidorino came to his senses and fired a poison sting at Falc, which Falc also dodged with ease. The two pokémon leaped away in opposite directions to avoid Falc's flare blitz, and Falc directed himself into the Houndoom, slamming into him. I watched in awe as the large pokémon went flying from the force of Falc's attack. _I guess Falc's flare blitz isn't just for show_ , I thought.

As Falc started fighting the Nidorino, the Houndoom stood up, spotted me, and growled at me. I recognized his growl, realizing that he was the Houndour that attacked Maple, now evolved! _Time to help Falc out,_ I thought, firing a flamethrower at the Houndoom. He shot fire back at me, and this time, my flamethrower couldn't overpower his like before. We fought with our fire attacks for a while until he broke it off and came charging at me, fangs bared. His teeth grew long, glowed white, and had really sharp points at the ends. He leaped at me as he approached, so I swiftly hopped backwards to avoid him. He landed in the spot where I was a second ago, right in front of me. I unleashed my flamethrower, sending the Houndoom reeling back with a howl. Then in came Falc, slamming into the Houndoom's side.

I looked for the Nidorino and spotted him in the process of standing up at the sidelines. Suddenly I heard a screech, the Houndoom's flamethrower having made contact with Falc's face, causing the bird to fall backwards to the ground. The Houndoom decided to make a run for it. I went up to Falc to make sure he was alright, but Falc was up swiftly. "I'll get that Houndoom," he said angrily, beginning to fly off at high speed. "You go after the other one!" he commanded me.

I looked in the other direction and caught a glimpse of purple before it disappeared behind a tree. "Yes sir!" I instinctively called after the soaring off bird. I laughed at how ridiculous I sounded saying that as I ran off to pursue the other raider.

Weaving through the trees, I desperately tried to keep up with the Nidorino. He was faster than me; eventually I could only catch a glimpse of the Nidorino's purple body before it disappeared behind the next tree. We were quickly approaching the edge of my forest. Luckily there was a valley in between my forest and the Nidorino's forest. When I exited my forest and reached the side of the valley I could see him down below. Taking careful aim, I shot a powerful star shaped Fire Blast in the Nidorino's path, then I charged down the hill. My attack came in contact with the ground in front of him and exploded, causing him to stop in his tracks with a yell.

As he turned around, I ran straight at him, quickly closing the distance. Tensing the muscles in my tail, I dug one of my forepaws into the ground and spun around, swinging my Iron Tail attack at the Nidorino. I didn't feel my tail make contact with the target though. As I turned to face my opponent, I saw him stand up from his ducking position. Glowing purple needles shot out of his mouth towards me, a poison sting. I tried to dodge by hopping to the left, but some of the needles hit my right leg. I winced from the attack, but my leg was able to fight off the poison, preventing it from spreading throughout my body.

As I landed on the ground, I gathered fire into my mouth and then shot it at Nidorino as a Flamethrower. The Nidorino tried to counter my attack with his own poison type attack, but my attack overpowered his and went straight for his face. The force of my attack blasted him off of his feet and into the air, then he hit the ground.

Not trying to sound cocky or anything, but this guy didn't seem as strong or threatening as the other two raiders I've encountered. If I stop attacking, maybe I could talk to him.

"What did you come here for?" I asked. I wanted to know more about the raiders, if this guy was willing to speak. Maybe we could settle this without any more fighting. I didn't risk pausing the fight and trying to talk last time because I was only focused on protecting Maple, but since it was only this Nidorino and me, I had the opportunity now.

"None of your business," he responded angrily.

He suddenly ran towards me and leaped with a burst of speed. _I guess that means we won't be talking,_ I thought. Acting quickly, I rolled onto my back and shot my four paws forward, catching the Nidorino by the stomach and flinging him over my head. He went flying into the ground behind me. I quickly stood back up and shot a flamethrower at him. He rolled out of the way but still got hit by my flames a little. Once standing again, he opened his mouth and out came a sludge bomb.

I used iron tail and swung my tail at the purple glob, sending straight back at him. He was expecting that I would have to dodge or something so he was in the process of starting another sludge bomb. He was not prepared for getting hit in the face by his own attack.

While he was recovering from the deflected attack, I could have rushed in and slammed him with iron tail, but I decided not to. Once he had gotten his bearings again, he faced me. I stared at him evenly but didn't show any aggression. Instead I held a look of curiosity.

"So, what did you come here for?" I asked again.

He ran towards me again. I charged up my iron tail and swung it at the oncoming opponent. The Nidorino couldn't dodge quick enough. My tail slammed into his side, sending him into the air. He landed on the ground, coughing. He struggled to get up, breathing heavily, with a distraught look. I still didn't attack him.

He was silent for a few moments. Once he figured out I wasn't going to attack him back, he said, "I've had enough of this. Sorry about attacking you. Please don't hurt me anymore. Let's just… forget we ever met, okay? I won't come back again."

Without waiting for an answer he turned around and started to walk away as quick as he could. "Hold it, don't go yet," I called after him. He froze, but didn't look back towards me.

"I have some questions for you," I said, walking up to him.

"L-like w-what?" he asked, sounding uneased.

"Well, first off, I'm Hickory," I said, introducing myself in order to sound friendly. "What's your name?"

"I'm Spike," he said. "What do you want from me?"

"What did you come here for?" I asked.

"Well… I, uh…" he stammered.

"I just want to know why you came here. What are you raiders here for? I'm not going to attack you if you don't attack me," I promised.

"I don't know much, I've only been a raider for a few days," he said.

"Well, let's start off with how you joined The Raiders," I requested.

"A lot of males have been joining The Raiders lately. I was asked to come along, but I didn't really want to."

"Then why did you?"

"It would've looked bad if I refused to join when asked," he said.

 _So it was peer pressure,_ I thought to myself. "Okay, now why were all the other males joining?"

He thought for a moment. "The first time I heard about The Raiders was I guess a few months ago. They went around the forest saying they needed help. These were well known, respected pokémon, so others were willing to listen."

"And what did they want help with?"

"Um… they wanted to attack certain pokémon from this forest," he said slowly.

"Like who?" I asked.

"Are… are you part of The Guard?" he asked me cautiously.

"Yes I am," I said, causing him to take a step back, away from me. "The Guard is your target?" I asked.

"Y-yeah… that's who the raiders are after…" he said, sounding very distraught now.

"Calm down, I only want answers. I'm not going to attack you if you don't attack me," I repeated. "You said you joined because everyone else was joining, and I'm assuming that's the reason some others joined, but why do the older raiders want to attack us?"

"They seem to really hate the pokémon on The Guard," he explained. "Sometimes they call it The Gang."

"Okay, _why_ do they hate us?" I asked, hoping for some solid reason.

"They say it's because The Guard keep beating them up," he answered.

"Well why did they come here in the first place?" I demanded, starting to get irritated now.

"I don't know, I've only been with them for a few days," he said. "I don't care about why, I just want to get home and back to my mate at this point. I'm not coming back here, I promise."

"Alright, I guess I'm done with you. Thanks for the information," I said.

"You're welcome. I won't be coming back, so I won't be seeing you again," he said, walking off towards his forest.

As I headed back to my own forest, I still had a lot to figure out. _Can I trust Spike's information? I think I can; he sounded pretty honest saying that he joined only because others were joining. In that case, I still need to figure out why the raiders hate Falc and the rest._

"There you are, Hickory!" Falc called. I turned my head to see him approaching me. His feathers looked a bit ruffled, but I saved the observation for later.

"Hey Falc," I said.

"You look pretty unscathed," he remarked. "Dealt with that Nidorino easily?"

"Yeah, and I asked him some stuff about the raiders," I said.

"You what?"

"I convinced him to stop fighting, then I asked him what the raiders were doing here. His name's Spike, by the way."

"And what did he say?" Falc asked in a rather disapproving tone.

"He said the raiders attack us, The Guard, because they apparently hate us, but he didn't know why. He's new, only been with them for a few days, and isn't planning on coming back."

"How can you trust him?" Falc asked.

I shrugged. "He seems okay," I said.

Falc rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't trust some random raider," he remarked.

"Aren't you interested in figuring out why they attack our forest?" I asked him.

"I'm not willing to take any risks. My duty is to protect all of the pokémon of this forest."

"Do the raiders often attack other pokémon in our forest besides us?"

Falc thought for a moment. "Yes they do. I guess it is usually us, but they certainly do attack other pokémon sometimes."

"Spike said they hate you because you've been beating them up," I said.

"That's because they always attack us or someone in our forest!" Falc exclaimed. "Are you trying to help them or something?"

"No, of course not!" I immediately responded. "I just want to find out why they come here and attack us. Can you think of any reason why they would come here in the first place?"

"Beats me," Falc said.

"Maybe we can work this is out with them and stop fighting," I suggested.

"Nah, if we beat them up enough times, they'll stop coming here eventually," Falc said. "I guess you had an easy time talking to that Nidorino because he's new. The serious raiders will never talk to us. They hate us."

"I won't accept that. I'm gonna figure out why they attack us, and then I'll find a way to get them to stop," I declared determinedly.

"Fine, whatever suits you," he said. "Now, let's get back to our patrol."

"Spike said there aren't anymore Raiders coming today," I said. _If I don't have to patrol, then I can go see Maple._

"First day of patrol and you already want to slack off?"

"Alright, fine…" I sighed. I wasn't in the mood for more patrolling since I was tired from being woken up early today. _Maybe I should do the night watch instead, then I can sleep all I want…_ I thought. _But then I can't train with Maple during the day,_ I realized.


	7. Chapter 7

Hickory's POV

 _I'm really thrilled to see her again, even though it's only been one day,_ I thought as I waited for Maple at the field. I spotted her at the edge of the field with a bright smile and a spring in her step, the sun shining off of her leaf like tail.

"You look really joyous today," I greeted her with, smiling.

"Yeah, I'm really excited to train with you!" she said enthusiastically. "I always wanted to learn how to protect myself, and tackling you is fun," she said with a grin. "Now that I think about it, this training really reminds me of all the fun times we had together when we were young," she reminisced.

"Oh yeah, those were great times," I agreed. I started thinking about the times we spent together when we were young. In my mind I recalled the two of us as two little Eevees playing here in this very field so long ago.

 _I was sitting on a thick branch of a tree hiding from Maple. It wasn't a good hiding spot though, because one of my legs was dangling off the edge, my brown fur easily noticeable against the green leaves. When Maple walked by, she quickly spotted me._

" _Hickory! I found you!" she called._

 _She waited for me to come down, but I stayed perfectly still, trying to trick her. After a few moments she decided to climb up the tree. I shifted my head ever so slightly to watch her progress towards my spot. Once she was up on my branch, I sprang out of the tree._

" _Hey!" she exclaimed._

 _I landed on my paws and started running. "Can't catch me!" I hollered._

" _You know I will!" she yelled back, leaping out of the tree._

 _I looked back and saw Maple charging towards me. I sped up and we went on a wild chase through the forest, weaving through trees, hopping over and ducking under obstacles._

 _Our run led us to the field. In the open area, Maple was starting to get really close to me. She leaped forward, but I snatched my tail away from her grasp just in time. She lost her speed after that, allowing me to get away._

" _Come on, Maple, tag me!" I taunted._

 _When I reached the edge of the field I decided to stay in the field, so I turned around. Maple eventually tagged me. Who was "it" went back and forth several times._

 _After we were sufficiently tired, we lied down in the grass and rested under the warm sun. "I love this field, but you know what's missing?" she said._

" _What?" I asked._

" _Some food! One day I'm gonna grow a berry garden here," she announced._

" _That sounds great!" I said. "I know you'll be able to do it."_

Then I gazed at the Leafeon in front of me, distracted by the thoughts of us together from our eeveehood days. _We were such close friends back then. I wish we could be even closer now..._

"Uh, Hickory… are you alright?" said the subject of my thoughts, waving her paw in front of me.

"Huh...? Uh, yeah, I'm fine," I hastily mumbled.

"Why did you space out?" she asked.

"Um… I was just thinking about something," I mumbled. I could feel my cheeks turning hot and I tilted my head downward to avoid eye contact.

"Care to share?" she asked.

"I was remembering a time when we were playing together when we were young," I said.

She smiled sweetly. "I was thinking about that too," she said.

"Anyway, ready to start training today?" I asked.

"Sure, let's go!" she agreed enthusiastically.

Maple's POV

We started the day off with some tackling and dodging practice. I was able to remember all the tricks from the previous training days. After warming up and reviewing the techniques, we moved on to something new for the day.

"I've got something fun ready for today," he said happily.

"Like what?" I asked. "I'm ready for it!"

"Try to tackle me," he instructed.

I did as he asked, running straight at him with a normal tackle. He did a sideways dodge just as he had taught me to do two days. I swiftly turned myself around and leaped at him using the stationary tackle technique from yesterday, but he hopped backwards, avoiding my tackle again. _This is just normal tackling and dodging, what's the fun thing he has planned?_ I thought as I ran towards his new position for a third tackle.

I turned my shoulder towards the impact spot like he taught me, but my shoulder hit nothing but air. In that moment, Hickory swiftly rolled onto his back. I felt his four paws push against my belly for a split second, and then I went soaring forward through the air faster than I was already running and landed painfully in the grass face first. I couldn't get up quick enough due to the shock of the maneuver and impact, giving Hickory enough time to get up and pin me down.

"Ugh, so that's the _fun_ trick you had for me," I groaned, painfully turning my head away from the ground to face him.

"You didn't think that was fun?" Hickory asked with a grin. "Well don't worry, you get to do that to me now," he said, which got me to grin. He graciously got off of me and helped me up.

"I consider that move a counter, sort of a dodge and a tackle. You get to turn your opponent's attack against them. The fun part is how you use their own running speed to send them flying into the ground."

"I certainly got to experience that," I said, "but not the fun part… yet." I was definitely going to have fun sending him flying.

"Okay, let's practice the movements first, before you get to throw me around," said Hickory. He rolled onto his back and shot all four of his legs forward and over. I laughed quietly because it looked pretty funny from the side with no actual target. Hickory quickly got back onto four paws, blushing slightly. I stopped laughing immediately, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.

"It's not as easy as it I made it seem earlier," he said. Back when I was learning this, it took me quite a bit of training and looking silly before I got it right. Go ahead and try," he instructed.

I nodded then quickly rolled onto my back, except my back hit the ground pretty hard and I felt disoriented and awkward. It took me at least a second before I remembered to thrust my legs up to send the imaginary attacker flying. That movement felt even more awkward. I tilted my head to glance at Hickory; he was barely containing laughter, making feel pretty embarrassed. I rolled over onto my stomach and stood up, blushing slightly.

"I see what you mean… sorry I laughed when you were doing it…" I apologized quietly.

"It's alright, it'll take practice. We have all day to get it right," he said. His words were very encouraging to me.

After another demonstration and two more fails by me, he said, "How about I try holding you and, uh... guiding you through the proper movements?"

"Sure." It sounded a little weird but I knew what he meant. He held me with a paw on my back and another on my stomach and showed me how fast to roll onto my back without getting disoriented. Then he moved my legs for me to show me the proper speed and angle to move my legs to successfully throw the opponent over my head. It felt kind of weird, but I did my best to focus on what he was teaching me. After that, and a bunch more tries, he said my movements were decent enough to try on an opponent.

I stood up facing Hickory, who was running towards me, but not a full speed. He was looking pretty calm, expecting nothing to go wrong. I managed to roll onto my back in time, but when it came to throwing him over me…

"Oof!" I cried out as he landed heavily on top of me, the wind being knocked out of me, my hind legs getting crushed between our bodies.

"Argh!" Hickory exclaimed as he landed on me, my hind paws digging into his stomach. He quickly rolled off of me. I lied there, breathing heavily, him also staying on ground, next to me.

"Maple, you have to throw me much faster and forcefully!" he yelled angrily.

"S-sorry…" I felt pretty ashamed on the inside. He was looking all calm while running at me; he trusted me that I could do the counter, and I failed and hurt both of us.

"No… I'm sorry Maple, I shouldn't have gotten that mad. These few days are the first time you've ever fought, so I shouldn't have had such high expectations of you."

 _Why is he apologizing? It was my fault, not his…_

"It's not your fault at all. I just need to try harder. I'll try again," I said.

"Are you sure? We don't have to go over an advanced trick like this yet. Don't overexert yourself."

"I'm sure I can get this right," I said determinedly, getting up, walking a fair distance away, and facing him.

"Alright then." He got ready to run at me, but then something occurred to me. _Maybe he doesn't want to continue and get hurt again. And now I go ahead and insist on trying again!_

"Wait, Hickory, I don't have to continue trying if you don't want to. I know it won't be fun being for you, being the target."

"No, I'm completely fine with it," he reassured me. I tried to tell if he was only saying that for me, but he really did mean it genuinely. That made me feel really glad. "Ready for me?" he asked.

"Yeah, ready."

He started running towards me, and just like before, he was calm, confident in my ability to get this right. I still couldn't get it completely right, but it was less of a fail compared to the first time. We decided to take a break. I must have looked really distraught, because he commented on it.

"Don't feel bad about not getting it the first time. It certainly took me more than a day to even come close to getting this trick right. You were able to learn to dodge in one day and tackle in one day, so I already know you're capable of performing this counter correctly some time soon."

His words really uplifted my spirit. _Hickory sure knows how to teach Pokémon how to fight._ I felt really glad to have him and wouldn't trade him for any other teacher.

We spent the rest of the morning making progress on the trick. It was hard work, but I felt very accomplished. _I'll be able to protect myself in no time!_ I thought as we went through the moves again and again. By the time we took a break for lunch I was able to roll onto my back and fling him. Now it was just a matter of practice.

"So, anything interesting happen yesterday?" I asked while we ate.

"Yeah, the patrol was really eventful!" he answered. "First off, I found out that the guard members are really respected and loved by everyone."

I thought of how pokémon would always greet Spruce and compliment him wherever we went. "That's definitely true. Spruce loves the recognition he gets for protecting everyone at night."

"The most interesting part was when I encountered a Raider. He's a Nidorino named Spike."

 _How would Hickory know the Raider's name?_ I wondered.

"I managed to get him to stop fighting and I asked him some questions. It turns out he's not a bad guy after all."

I felt shock on the inside when he said that. "What? Hickory, that's so dangerous! I'm glad you're not hurt!"

"What are you talking about? Spike wasn't dangerous at all," he said casually.

"He could have been lying, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike you!" I told him. "You had no idea what that guy was going to do. Spruce says he always takes no chances when fighting raiders because they will do anything to hurt us," I explained.

Hickory's expression turned real sour after I said that. _What was it that made him feel angry?_ I wondered, confused.

"I don't care how Spruce handles raiders, I can do things my way," he said firmly. "I want to find out why they're coming to our forest to attack us. If I need to talk to enemies, I'll do it."

"I'm scared for you, Hickory. If you go on trusting your enemies like this, you could end up in big trouble. I don't want to lose you," I said.

There was an awkward pause for a moment. "Why, thanks Maple. It… really means alot to me that you care about me that much," he said quietly.

"Of course I care about you. What are best friends for? You're still my best friend even though it's been a long, long time," I said happily.

"Don't worry, nothing horrible will happen to me. I'm too good for the raiders to take me down," he said confidently. "I was dominating over Spike during the fight. There was no way he could've beaten me."

I thought back to the time he saved me. "Yeah, I remember the time you defended me from those two raiders. They didn't stand a chance against you."

"Human training really helps. Speaking of training, ready for me to continue passing on my skills to you?"

"You betcha!" I said. "I want to be as good as you one day!"

Hickory's POV

Reenergized after lunch, we got up and continued training.

"Like I said last time, knowing how to use the moves is only one half of learning how to battle," I said. "The other half is putting all your moves together in an actual battle, doing the right moves at the right time. Let's battle now. You can tackle, dodge, and use the roll over counter trick."

"Yeah, let's do it! I'm gonna beat you!" she announced enthusiastically. I was pretty amazed by her determination. _She's really eager to learn how to battle!,_ I thought.

I started the battle by running straight at her. She evaded with a sideways dodge. As I slowed myself down from the run, I glanced over and saw that she was running at me for a tackle now. Just as she came near, I swiftly rolled onto my back.

I didn't want to throw her too hard and hurt her, so I didn't put my full strength into the overhead throw. However, it didn't send her flying fast or far enough, so she was able to land on her four paws skillfully.

I ran towards her to tackle her. I fully expected her to use the trick, but continued anyway. She rolled onto her back and I felt her paws shove into my stomach and send me over her, but she didn't really do it strong enough so I was able to coordinate myself before flying into the ground.

Maple came running towards me again. I prepared to do the counter, but to my surprise, she slowed down then did a leaping tackle instead of a running one. The impact of her forepaws forcefully sent me flying and I couldn't land properly.

"Nice job!" I complimented.

"Thanks!" she said happily.

Once I was up again, I ran towards her again. This time she put enough strength into the her legs to really send me flying, and I was unable to get my bearings before my face hit the ground.

The battle continued for quite some time, both of us getting some perfect attacks and some mess ups. Pretty soon we were both pretty tired, panting.

I decided this would be the last counter for the battle, then it was time to rest. I forced myself to roll onto my back and used all of my strength to send Maple flying over me.

"AHHHH!" I heard her scream from behind me.

I heard a loud thud. _Uh-oh, what happened?_ I thought, feeling a sense of dread.

I got up, turned around, and realized, to my horror, that our battle had led us to the very edge of the field and I had flung Maple straight into a tree!

"Maple! Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" I apologized as I rushed over to her. She was lying at the base of the tree on her side.

"I'm… okay…" she said quietly.

I offered my paw to help her up. She clutched it with her right paw and I lifted to help her up, but her left foreleg was trembling as she pushed off of the ground with it, causing her to whimper softly.

"Maple? What's wrong?" I asked immediately, concerned.

"My left shoulder kinda hurts, but don't worry. It's nothing to be concerned about."

There was a noticeable bruise at the spot where she had impacted the tree which looked quite painful. _Despite just being thrown into a tree she's so forgiving…_ I thought.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea we were near the edge of the field, otherwise I never would have thrown you into that tree," I said quickly.

"It's a really great idea for a real battle though," she said with a laugh.

"I didn't mean to throw you into the tree," I repeated, feeling even worse.

"I know. I know you would never hurt me on purpose like that. I trust you completely," she said sincerely. Those words made me feel much better on the inside.

"I think we should end training for today," I suggested.

"That would be a good idea," she agreed.

We relaxed in the shade of a Figy tree at the edge of Maple's garden together. At some point, I heard a neigh and some galloping. Looking up, I spotted Hooves the Rapidash coming towards us. I immediately became aware that I was lying on the ground beside Maple and hastily got up onto four paws.

"Howdy, Hickory!" Hooves greeted, a little over enthusiastically as always.

"Hey Hooves," I greeted nervously.

He turned to Maple and said, "Aren't you Spruce's mate?"

That question made me feel even more awkward. The way he had addressed Maple as "Spruce's mate" made me feel uncomfortable.

"Yeah, my name's Maple," she said. She held out a paw for Hooves to shake. It took him a few awkward seconds before he realized what she meant by holding her paw out. Hooves awkwardly brought a hoof to her paw and shook it. _Hooves is definitely not the formality type,_ I thought with a chuckle on the inside.

"What were you two doing?" Hooves asked with a hint of amusement.

"Uh…" said Maple.

"I'm teaching Maple how to dodge and tackle," I said.

"It didn't look like it," said Hooves accusingly, although his smirk showed that he was joking. Nevertheless, that made me feel even more uncomfortable.

"Where's your man Spruce?" Hooves asked Maple.

"He's asleep at the den," she answered. "He sleeps during the day because he's doing the night watch." I didn't know whether I imagined it or not, but I heard a little bit of bitterness in her voice.

"Hmm… yeah, he's gotta keep his night guard reputation," Hooves remarked. "Well, I'd love to start and chat some more, but I gotta continue my patrol," he said, walking off. "See ya!"

I felt relieved when he left. Maple was by friend, but I could imagine Hooves thinking otherwise. _Although I wouldn't object…_

Pretty soon the sun was setting, creating a beautiful sunset.

"Isn't this sunset beautiful?" Maple said.

"It sure is, but you know who's more beautiful than the sunset?" I paused. "Y-

 _Oh crap! What am I saying? What do I say now?_

"Y-y-your Figy plants. Yeah, your Figy plants," I stuttered.

"Uh, thanks," she said uncertainly, looking at me curiously. "But… Why are you calling my plants 'who?'"

"Uh… um… I love their berries so much they're worth being considered Pokémon!" I came up with on the spot.

"But then you would be eating someone's limbs!" she exclaimed. We both laughed. "Actually, a plant's berries contain seeds… you're eating the plant's babies!" She said a moment later, making us laugh even more.

 _It doesn't have to be like my dreams. I can still enjoy even if we're just friends,_ I thought.

We hung out a little more until it was darker. "I better head home now," she said.

"How's your bruise?" I asked.

"Not bad," she said. "Don't worry about it."

"Will you be able to walk home fine?" I asked.

"Yes… please don't be so concerned about it. It's just a bruise. It'll be perfectly fine tomorrow."

 _She's right, why am I so worried about it? Maple's already really strong._

"You're right, sorry," I said.

"No problem!" she said. "Will you be available tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yup, definitely. I'll hang out with you anytime," I said.

"Cool, see ya tomorrow! I can't wait for what'll come next!" she said, walking off.

"Bye Maple!" I said.

As I headed off towards my own den in the dimming sunlight, I realized what I had said about seeing her anytime. _I have to stop my thoughts from coming out so quickly,_ I thought. _If I ever let my feelings slip, our friendship won't work anymore…_


	8. Chapter 8

Maple's POV

The sun woke me up early in the morning. I didn't want to get up just yet, so I rolled onto my left side to fall asleep again. I yelped and jumped from the painful soreness in my left shoulder where I rested my weight on, which woke me up for sure. Looking down at my shoulder, I saw that the bruise from impacting the tree yesterday had gotten larger. I gently placed my right paw at my left shoulder and applied some pressure. I winced slightly, but it was manageable. _Hopefully Spruce won't see it,_ I thought. _I don't want to worry him. He might think I was attacked by Raiders again._ I guess I can hide it from him today, since he'll come home tired and will want to sleep. I don't know how I'll hide it tomorrow though; his night guard shift would be over so we would be spending time together. Hopefully the bruise will heal up by then.

Luckily Spruce approached our home from the right so I was able to keep my left shoulder away from him. "Ugh, I'm exhausted," he yawned, heading towards the bed.

"Sleep tight," I said. "Today's your last daytime sleep."

" Only one more night watch. Tomorrow we can spend all day together," he promised. "Won't that be great?"

"Of course," I said. _Although I'll have to explain where I got this bruise…_ I noted in my head.

I headed out towards the field, glad that Spruce didn't see the bruise. I had to walk a little slower than usual because of it.

When I got to the field, I saw that it was a beautifully bright and sunny day. Hickory wasn't here yet, so I walked over to my garden to take care of the plants. I plucked some weeds here and there. Some Figy berries weren't getting as much sunlight so I closed my eyes, energy came to me, and I directed the energy into the Figy plants to grow them myself. I've been doing that to help the plants grow ever since I started my garden. I headed to the Custap bush in the middle of my garden to check on it. It was growing fine, but Custap bushes always grew very, very slowly. None of its flowers had bloomed yet. I started growing it with my powers. When I was done, I saw that the bush had barely grown.

I headed back to the outer row of my garden, about to grow that side, when I saw Hickory coming my way.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized. "I slept in a little."

"Since when were you a such a sleepyhead?" I teased.

"It's a habit I developed while living with humans," he said with a shrug. "Taking care of your garden?"

"Yeah, but I can finish later. What'll you be teaching me today?" I asked eagerly.

"Hmm… So far I've taught you how to dodge and tackle. Dodging is very important, but tackling isn't really that important. I rarely tackle in battles because there are better, much cooler things to do."

"Like what?" I asked. I couldn't wait to hear what awesome thing I would be learning today.

"Like this!" he said, as he pointed his muzzle towards the air and released a stream of fire. I shrieked in surprise and jumped away; despite shooting in a direction away from me, I could feel the intense heat of the attack on my fur. The fire was also very bright.

"Don't scare me like that!" I exclaimed.

Hickory grinned and said, "That move is called Flamethrower. It's a very reliable ranged attack, my favorite move. Most Pokémon train themselves physically and get really strong that way, but I prefer using special attacks. Now, I make Flamethrower look easy and really powerful, but it takes just as much strength and practice as physical tackle training takes. Instead of practicing tackling heavily, I focused on making the best Flamethrower. I intend to teach you a ranged attack which will probably be the move you use the most. Let's get started."

I waited for him to elaborate on what he would teach me but he didn't. "Uh… what exactly are you going to teach me?" I asked.

He turned so that he wasn't facing me, said, "Follow me," then used flamethrower.

"Wait, what? How am I supposed to do that?" I asked, really confused.

"Just like this," said Hickory, then he used flamethrower again.

"Hickory, There's no way I can breathe fire!" I protested.

"Sure you can!" he said matter-of-factly. I frowned, walked up to his side, and saw that he was silently laughing with a big smile on his face.

"Just kidding!" he joked happily.

"Aw, you were getting my hopes up…" I complained.

"Well, I have the awesome ability to create fire from inside of me, which I use to create fire for my fire attacks. But believe it or not, you have an ability that's just a cool," he revealed.

"I do? What kind of special things can I do? I don't think I've ever done anything like your flamethrower," I said.

"I bet you used your special power just a few minutes ago," he said.

 _What special power do I have? I've never done any kind of special attack before._ I thought about it more and the answer came to me. "Is it about how I can grow the plants?" I asked.

"Correct."

"But… that's nothing like an attack," I pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure the process you use to grow plants is the same as the process you would use to create attacks. How about I watch you grow a plant? Then maybe I can identify the process and try to explain it to you," he requested.

"Sure." Facing the Figy plant I wanted to grow, I relaxed and focused on the sunlight falling on my tail and the leaves on my head. I started to feel this special kind of energy rise within me. I channeled the energy into the plant to grow it. Once I was done, I opened my eyes, watching the plant visibly grow slowly, with it glowing a bright green. Soon the plant stopped growing and the light faded away.

"That's basically what I expected was happening," Hickory said. "In order to grow the plants you are using natural energy coming from the nature around and the sun. I can tell because when you grew the plants, your leaves were glowing green. That natural energy can be used to do many cool things, one of which creating attacks. It's basically the grass type equivalent of my ability to create fire. Humans call your kind of natural energy powers 'grass powers' and called the moves that originate from these powers 'grass moves.' Since leafeons have access to grass powers, humans consider leafeons 'grass types.' As a flareon, I'm considered a fire type with fire powers and fire moves."

 _Wow, I didn't think I could do special things similar to the way he can create fire._

"Sorry, that was probably really confusing," he said.

"No, I think I get it. So what'll you teach me to do first?" I asked.

"The first thing I want you to try is to heal that bruise from yesterday," he instructed, pointing at my shoulder.

"How do I do that?"

"When you focus on growing the plants, the energy just comes to you and you direct it into the plants, right?"

"That's about right," I agreed.

"Well, if you focus on healing your bruise, the energy should come to you and you can direct it into your bruise. Try it out. The strong sunlight right now will probably help."

I closed my eyes, relaxed, and focused. My tail and the leaves on my head started to feel more sensitive to the sunlight. I felt energy rise within me. The energy made me feel warm and comfortable. I tried moving the energy to my bruise. Soon I felt the soreness in the bruised spot on my right shoulder start to go away.

I opened my eyes and looked at my bruised spot. It was glowing a faint green. The energy started to disappear along with the glowing light. Once the glow was completely gone, I could see that the bruise looked a lot less bad and it felt less sore when I moved my shoulder. I was amazed by what I had just done.

"Wow, I have the power to heal myself! That's so cool!" I remarked.

"You can still continue healing the bruise even more, until it's completely gone," Hickory informed. "Now, I want you to try to do it without closing your eyes," he instructed. "If you just imagine that same feeling the energy gave you, and imagine healing your bruise with that energy, the energy will come."

"Okay, I'll try," I said. I tried to create the feeling that came from the energy again. A little bit of energy came to me, then more and more. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see a green glow emanating from my leaves. Moving my tail to my side, I could see it was glowing brightly as well. I glanced over at Hickory and saw him smiling at me. Now that I felt a lot of energy within me, I directed it towards my shoulder. My shoulder glowed even brighter than my leaves at the bruise. The pain faded away and was replaced by warmth. As my shoulder was healing, the energy was fading away, being used up. I felt a little tired from the healing though.

"How are you feeling now?" asked Hickory.

"I feel great! Thanks!" I said happily.

"The move I just taught you how to do is called Synthesis, in which you use your grass powers to heal yourself. The move is most effective while the sun is shining strong like today. However, with lots of practice, it's possible to heal yourself even at night. There's always grass energy available for you, it's just harder to use without sunlight, but definitely possible with hard work. Do you feel a little tired now?" he asked.

"Uh, a little," I said. "Should I be feeling tired?"

"Yes, that's perfectly normal. Using your powers does take effort. With practice, you'll get worn out less and less."

"Alright, I'll be sure to practice a lot then!" I said.

He smiled. "You're really into this training, aren't you!" he said.

"Definitely!" I answered excitedly. "Now, what about attacks? What else can I do with my grass powers?" I asked eagerly.

He chuckled and said, "The next thing I'll teach you is Energy Ball. This is where the fun truly begins. Energy Ball is basically the grass version of flamethrower. You'll use your grass powers to form a destructive ball of grass energy and fire it at a target. Doesn't that sound amazing?"

"Yeah, it does. Actually, it sounds so cool I don't really think it's possible… Hopefully you're not tricking me again!"

"You've never seen grass powers in action?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know anyone else who can do what I can do," I said.

"Hmm… yeah, I guess there aren't many other grass types around here now that I think about it," he reasoned.

"I've seen fire and water powers before. I didn't know I have special powers equivalent to those though, besides growing plants."

"Yeah, I guess grass powers aren't as recognizable as fire or water powers," he said.

"And I've seen some Pokémon make lightning, like the bright things that rainstorms create. What's that called?"

"That's would be an electric type," he said.

"I've seen Spruce do some special things. What would you call Spruce's powers?" I asked.

"Those would be dark powers," he said.

"How many different types of powers are there?" I asked.

"Eighteen," he said casually.

 _Eighteen! That's a lot!_ I thought. "Wow, and you know them all?" I asked, very interested now.

"Yup, I know them all because it helps to know what your opponents can do to you in battle. Some types are great against others and some are bad against others. For example, water types have an advantage against me, a fire type. I know what every type is strong and weak against. But it gets even more complicated. Some Pokémon can even have more than one type!" he said.

 _Seems really complicated… I didn't think fighting was this complicated,_ I thought. "Are you going to teach me all of that?" I asked, less enthusiastic as before.

"Nah, listening to me list all the type matchups would be very boring. They're pretty intuitive so you can figure them out yourself. For know, let's just focus on your own grass powers."

"Yeah, I want to get to learning my grass attacks!" I said cheerfully.

"So you know what that grass energy feels like now, right? You're getting used to it?"

"Yup."

"Good because you'll need that energy for all your strongest moves. For energy ball, take that energy and use it to form a ball in front of your mouth. All you should have to do is imagine that energy, your grass powers, and it'll come to you for you to use. The more you use your grass powers the easier it will naturally come to you and the more energy you'll build up over time. Get some energy and try using energy ball now."

I remembered what my grass powers felt like and tried to get it again. The energy slowly came to me. I concentrated on getting more energy. Soon the leaves on my head and my tail were glowing a faint green, then brighter and brighter.

"Great job, doing good so far," said Hickory.

"What do I do now?" I asked. While I spoke, I lost my concentration and I felt some of the energy go away.

"Try to direct it in front of your mouth," he said.

I nodded and tried to do that. I could feel the energy slowly travel towards my head. It felt weird having all this energy build up inside me. When growing plants, I always released the energy into the plants immediately so I never felt like this before. The amount of energy around my head started to feel uncomfortable, making me feel a little disoriented. I instinctively opened my mouth to breathe in some air.

To my shock and surprise, a tiny ball of bright green energy formed in front of my mouth! I could feel some energy travel into the ball. I tried directing the energy right into the ball, the same way I did with plants, and the ball grew bigger! It was about the size of half my head now. Since it was right next to my mouth, I could feel the power that the floating ball was containing. I couldn't believe I was making this happen!

"Alright Maple, shoot it!" Hickory commanded.

Quickly jerking my head in his direction, I said, "Wha-

Boom! I cried out as the energy ball exploded, and I was knocked to the ground from the force of my own attack. _Wow, I created that much power all by myself!_ I thought.

Hickory was quickly by my side. "Are you alright, Maple?" he asked, helping me up.

"I'm so excited! That was so cool! I can't believe I can create a ball of energy like that!"

Hickory grinned. "Glad you like your powers. I can't believe you've never got to use energy ball before. I can't imagine living without my flamethrower."

"So how do I get it to not explode in my face?" I asked.

"The energy ball started forming when you breathed in, right?" he asked.

"That's right," I confirmed.

"I think you can fire the energy ball by exhaling really quickly. Any quick breaths or jerks of your head might make the attack blow up while still in your control."

"Alright, I'll try that," I said. I imagined the feel of that grass energy and it came back to me. I breathed in to create the energy ball in front of my mouth. I poured my grass energy into the energy ball.

Once the ball was as big as I could get it, I exhaled as hard as I could. The energy ball when flying forward really fast… except it went whizzing straight into the ground a few feet in front of me and exploded. I felt the blast of energy ruffle my fur.

"Okay, so good job in firing the energy ball. Now we need to work on your aim," he said casually. After several tries I was able to hit a tree, creating an indent in the bark. I felt really proud of myself and amazed at what I could do. I created a ball of energy out of thin air and wrecked a tree with it!

I continued making energy balls and attempting to hit targets with them. It was a lot harder than it looked. As I continued performing the attack, I felt the grass energy that I was creating become less and less, until I couldn't create enough power for an energy ball. "Man, I'm really tired now!" I huffed.

"Your powers aren't limit limitless! Once you use it all up you have to rest, just like with muscles and physical attacks," Hickory explained. "Let's take a break now, you deserve it. You've been working so hard that it's making me hungry!"

We headed to my garden for some food. "Your energy ball seems pretty weak now, but it'll get stronger as you practice," Hickory explained while we ate. "When I first evolved into a flareon, my flamethrowers started out as tiny embers. The more you use your grass powers, the stronger they grow. Kinda like how using your muscles will make them stronger. Since you've been using your powers to grow plants all this time, your energy ball is already way bigger than any other grass type who's just starting out."

"Is it really? I'm sure I'm no better than any normal Pokémon learning to do the same thing," I said modestly. "There's nothing special about me."

"I think you're very special," he said immediately. "I mean, you can grow plants! I don't think I've met anyone who's been using their grass powers to grow plants before. How did you first discover that you could grow plants?" he asked.

"Hmm, let me think… When I was first planting these berry bushes, I was taking a break and lying down on the grass relaxing. While I was relaxing, I was imagining the little Figy saplings next to me growing into big strong plants, that was just what was on my mind at the time. When I opened my eyes to continue gardening, I realized that the Figy saplings next to me looked just a tiny bit bigger than before. I was sure they had grown though. How come my grass powers magically showed up at that point?" I asked.

"Your powers will come to you whenever you need them," he explained. "Whenever you want to grow a plant or heal yourself or make an energy ball, your grass energy will come, as long as you're not exhausted. Just like whenever I want to create some fire it'll create itself and I just need to release it. It's just something awesome and special you can do."

"But… where does the energy come from?" I asked.

"It comes from nature. No one knows how and why, it just does. Humans haven't figured it out either."

"I see… so I guess I've had these powers coming from nature ever since I've evolved. Thank you so much for helping me discover them!" I said. "These powers are so awesome!"

After the break was over, Hickory had me try hitting a moving target - him. Needless to say, I couldn't hit him at all. "C'mon Maple, I thought for sure you would be able to hit me!" he teased.

"Aiming is so hard… why don't you try?" I said, frustrated.

"Okay!" he said with a mischievous grin forming. "Your turn to dodge, and I'll try to hit you with my flamethrower."

"Uh, no thanks! I take that back!" I said, panicking.

Suddenly a streak of fire came towards me, whizzing past my right.

"Hickory, please don't!" I cried desperately.

"I wasn't actually going to hit you," he said calmly.

"B-but… what if you accidentally hit me…" I said fearfully. "Your flamethrower looks so dangerous…"

"My aim is too good for me to actually hit you," he remarked cockily.

"Please don't ever do that again though, that was very scary!" I begged.

There was a pause, then he said, "You're right, I shouldn't have. I'm sorry. I didn't realize how scary it would be for you, since you're weak towards fire type moves. I sometimes feel the same way when up against water attacks. Please forgive me?" he said.

"I forgive you," I said. "As long as you don't do it again."

"Thanks," he said. He sat down next to me. "How about I show you my fire moves? It'll probably help you feel less scared if you see them up close."

"Sure, go for it," I said. "As long as you're using your perfect aim to keep it away from me."

He chuckled and nodded. Then he started gathering up fire in his muzzle and released it in the shape of a star. The fire was very bright and magnificently beautiful - when it was going away from me, that is.

The rest of the day went by with me practicing energy ball and taking breaks to regain my grass energy while we relaxed and talked. Before I knew it, the sun was beginning to set. By that time, my energy balls were slightly larger than when I first started, although Hickory said normal energy balls were still a little bigger.

"Tomorrow I have a really unique and special move to teach you!" said Hickory. "See ya tomorrow!"

"Uh, actually, I can't train with you tomorrow, " I said quietly.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Spruce's night guard duty is ending tonight for now. Tomorrow he'll be available during the day, so I'll be hanging out with him," I explained.

"Oh… I see," Hickory muttered, looking very saddened all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry, but he is my mate, and we haven't really been together for while due to his night Guard duty…"

"Right… I understand…"

 _I didn't think Hickory would be this sad about not meeting tomorrow…_ I thought, feeling a little guilty. "Maybe we can continue the next day? I can't guarantee it though," I said.

"Well, when we meet again, we can continue where we left off. Try practicing your energy ball whenever you have a spare moment," he said, more optimistically. "Try to strengthen your grass powers as much as you can."

"I definitely will," I promised. "Again, thank you so much for teaching me all of this the past couple days. I'm so glad you came back home after so long! Even after all those years, you're still my best friend!" I said sincerely with a big smile.

"I'm so glad to be with you again too! I never forgot about you, Maple. In fact, you're the main reason I searched far and wide for the place I grew up!"

"Was I really?" I asked.

"Yeah! I mean, there were others I wanted to see, and I was also tired of humans and wanted to get back to the forest, but you were the main reason!"

 _Wow, I didn't think I meant that much to Hickory!_ I thought, making me smile.

It was dark by now; this was the longest time I've stayed at the field. "I better get going," I said. "See ya some time soon!"

"See ya! And work on those grass powers!" he said, waving good-bye.

As I walked back to my den, I felt like I would miss him for the next few days, but I shrugged it off. As I entered the forest, it got even darker compared to the already darkening field. _Maybe I should've headed home earlier…_ I thought regrettably. Then I had an idea. I tried gathering some grass energy to make my leaves glow. Unfortunately, they didn't glow very bright so I stopped. Gathering the energy felt harder in the dark. I'll have the practice it, like Hickory said.

When I arrived at my den, I saw that Spruce was still asleep. Not wanting to wake him, I sat down next to our leaf bed. Tonight would be his last night watch for now so I wanted him to have a good day's sleep. He wouldn't be sleeping tomorrow during the day so he could spend time with me. Usually the first day when switching his sleep schedule was very rough for him.

I decided to practice energy ball since Hickory said the more I use my grass powers, the stronger they'll get. As I started creating grass energy for the energy ball, I realized that less energy was coming to me. It was probably because I was in our darkened den as instead of the bright and sunny field. My leaves weren't glowing as brightly in here.

I breathed in to make the energy ball form in front of my muzzle. I couldn't get the ball to grow very big compared to at the field. I breathed out to fit the energy ball. The small attack shot away from me towards the entrance, but it ended up hitting the stone side of our den. I winced as my attack exploded against the wall. _Maybe I shouldn't be practicing in here…_ I thought.

Spruce suddenly sprang out of the bed, wide awake. His sudden movement made me jump in alarm. When I turned to look at him, he was looking around frantically.

"Who's there?!" he yelled, assuming a hostile stance.

"Uh… it's just me, Spruce. Sorry I woke you up," I apologized sheepishly.

"Maple? I just heard a loud bang which woke me up," he said, checking the area behind me. "I have a feeling someone's trying to attack us!"

"Don't worry, no one's here," I assured him. "I was the one who made the loud bang."

"What did you do?" he asked.

"I may have made a big dent to our wall…" I said quietly, pointing at the spot where my energy ball exploded. There was a visible indent there with some small chunks of rock littering the floor below the spot.

He spotted the dent in the wall and frowned. "How did you do that?" he asked, skeptical.

"Uh, using energy ball," I said, not sure if he would understand.

"What do you mean?"

"Using grass powers," I tried to clarify.

"Show me," he requested.

I nodded and started to gather grass energy. It was definitely more difficult here than at the field during daylight. I felt kinda nervous doing this in front of Spruce, which didn't help. Soon my leaves started glowing to indicate the arrival of the grass energy. I glanced over at Spruce and saw that he looked perplexed. Soon I created the energy ball and fired it. This time I aimed much better. It excited our den and hit the ground outside, exploding.

I grinned at Spruce, but he looked more shocked than amazed, which got me to drop my grin. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"Using my grass powers!" I said cheerfully. "I had powers that I didn't know about all this time, and now I know how to use them!"

"How'd you learn?" he asked.

"My friend Hickory taught me!" I said.

Spruce looked at me weirdly. "When did he do that?" Spruce asked.

"Earlier today he taught me energy ball. I've been meeting with him for the past few days, and he's been teaching me how to protect myself so that I'll be safe from the Raiders! Isn't that great?"

"Yeah, it is…" he muttered.

 _He doesn't seem very happy about me learning how to fight…_ I thought sadly.

"You would rather hang out with him than me?" Spruce asked, somewhat accusingly.

"Well, you've been asleep," I pointed out. "I would hang out with you if you were awake."

Spruce cheered up after I said that. "I just have this last night, then we can hang out all we want tomorrow," he said happily.

"Awesome, I've been waiting," I said. "I still wish you didn't have to sleep through the day you know, even if it's only half the time."

"I'm sorry. I'll make sure the time we do spend together is very worthwhile. Every moment I have we can spend together."

"Sounds good enough for me," I said.

"I guess I better start my night watch," he said. "Good night, love," he said, nuzzling me as he passed by.

"Stay safe," I said.

I walked over to our leaf bed and curled up. I was drifting off quickly since using learning how to use my grass powers all day was exhausting, but before I did, a thought came to me. _I doubt I'll be training with Hickory for a while. Probably not until Spruce is back on night guard duty._ I felt a little guilty, and a little disappointed.


	9. Chapter 9

Hickory's POV

 _Maybe Maple will come today,_ I thought as I arrived at the field for the fifth day since I taught her energy ball. Every morning I still went to the field just in case she could hang out for the day, but she never came. I saw her around the forest sometimes, but she was always with Spruce. She looked happy with him, but I'm pretty sure she seemed happier when she was with me. I shook my head. _It's just me seeing things,_ I told myself.

I reviewed what we'd done in our training, really impressed with Maple's progress. She was always so determined to learn how to fight. _She looked so cool when she used a grass move, her leaves glowing beautifully…_ I shook my head, trying not to think like that.

After some boring time, I decided to just go do something else for the day. No use in waiting for someone who wasn't coming. I just wandered around the forest without much to do, not really in the mood to make a plan. I did spot Falc, however, perched on a large branch along with a Pidgeot.

"Let me tell you about the time I fought off two raiders at once! It was the biggest fight off my life! At first it was just a Pinsir. I was beating him up easily!" Falc bragged. "But then, another Raider snuck up behind me and attacked me. It was a Skuntank. But I beat him up as well. It was hard work, fighting two raiders at once, but I managed. Not even two raiders can defeat the mighty Captain Falcon!" Falc proclaimed.

"That's right, you're the strongest guardian there is, Falc!" Ariel complimented. Falc stood tall and proud on his branch, looking majestic.

I walked away, not really interested in listening to Falc brag to Ariel anymore. Falc had told me the real story of what happened before. Falc was caught off guard by the sneak attack. He didn't really defeat the two raiders, he flew off after fighting a little. _Falc needs to stretch the truth if he wants to impress the girl,_ I figured out. _Maybe I should try to impress Maple some more...? No, that's not the kind of Pokemon I am,_ I told myself.

I continued wandering around, bored, wishing something interesting would happen, when suddenly I heard someone scream, "Leave me alone!" I immediately ran towards the source of the distress call. Through the mass of trees I saw a Herdier facing two other pokémon, a Pinsir and a Luxio. _That Luxio looks familiar…_ I thought, trying to remember where I had seen him before. I gasped as I realized that he was one of the raiders I saved Maple from!

The situation quickly became clear to me. That Herdier must've yelled for help because she was being harassed by those two raiders. I took a big step forward, preparing to run, when I hesitated. _Can I take on two raiders by myself?_

 _Sure you can! You saved Maple from the Houndour and Luxio, didn't you?_

 _But that was desperate, I had to save my friend and love!_

 _And this is not desperate? There's a forest pokémon in big trouble over there!_

 _I could just run back and get Falc to come with me quickly. That would be the logical thing to do..._

 _Besides, you're a member of The Guard! You have to be fearless and protect anyone from the raiders, just like Falc would!_

 _That's true, I guess..._

I was snapped out of my mental debate when I saw the Pinsir attack the Herdier, sending her flying somewhat in my direction and into a tree. She crashed into the trunk and slumped down, letting out a painful yell. The Pinsir and Luxio advanced towards their fallen target.

Finally making my mind, I charged forward. I ran until I was in front of the Herdier and unleashed a flamethrower in front of me. The raiders stopped in their tracks.

I heard the Herdier stand up from behind me. "Run for it! I'll take them!" I instructed the Herdier.

She nodded frantically and took off as quick as she could, given her injuries. With the victim away from the fight, I turned to face the angry raiders. They looked… very evil and menacing as they stared at me...

"Why were you two attacking her?" I demanded.

The only answer I got was a thunderbolt flying towards me. I easily dodged it. The Pinsir came running towards me to tackle me, so I performed the roll-over counter in response. The Pinsir collided with the tree the Herdier had collided with. As I stood up, I saw the Luxio running towards me. I rolled over and sent him flying as well, throwing him straight into his comrade. I stared at them with a grin as they struggled to stand back up, hoping they would just up and leave.

I shouldn't have been so optimistic though. As soon as the Luxio was up, he fired a thunderbolt at me. _Ugh, Hickory, what's wrong with you? If you had used fire blast while they were down, you could've ended the fight!_ I mentally kicked myself as I dodged the Luxio's attack. They both advanced towards me. I quickly created fire in my muzzle and unleashed a flamethrower at them. They boldly charged through my attack, but I leaped away from my spot. They were disoriented and ended up ramming into each other, knocking each other down.

"How about you two just go home?" I suggested.

"You fool! You think we'll concede defeat to you?" the Luxio snarled.

He leaped up and charged at me. Opening up his mouth, his fangs grew to twice their normal size as he used bite. I gave him a nice iron tail to chomp on. Unfortunately, his fangs still managed to hurt my tail. I had a sharp intake of breath as his overgrown fangs chomped down on my tail. With a forceful fling of my tail, I threw him off of my tail, then used flamethrower at him.

The Pinsir was still on the ground after colliding with his partner. I ran at the Pinsir, hardened my tail, and spun on my paw, swinging my iron tail at him. There was a loud _clang!_ as my iron hard tail hit his equally sturdy body which must've been because he had used harden or iron defense. Suddenly I felt a painful shock start at my tail and rapidly spread through the rest of my body. It felt like what being set on fire felt like back when I was an Eevee.

As soon as the thunderbolt stopped, I scrambled away from the two raiders and faced them. "Give up and leave!" I spat.

"Why don't you give up and leave?!" the Pinsir retorted harshly.

I stared at the two raiders, getting a clear view of the fierceness in their eyes. _These guys are evil, not like Spike at all…_ I realized. Then I heard some movement behind me. I rapidly jerked my head to see what was there, and saw a huge sludge bomb coming at me. The impact threw me to the ground, coughing. Looking up, I saw the new attacker jump out of the tree he was hiding in, a Skuntank. _Three raiders?! I can't handle three raiders!_

Before I knew it, the Pinsir picked me up with his sharp pincers at my sides, squeezed me, and flung me into the air. Despite the newfound searing pain in my sides, I was able to land on my paws though. Now all three raiders were advancing towards me quickly. I decided the best thing to do was to turn tail and run. _I could have beaten them if I had knocked them out with fire blast while they were down! Why didn't I?!_

Distracted by my angry, chastising thoughts, I didn't notice the sludge bomb and thunderbolt flying towards me. Both attacks hit me in rear, knocking me down, groaning. I struggled to get up and get away from them, panicking now. I desperately swung my iron tail around me as they approached, but didn't hit any of them. The Pinsir slammed into me at full speed, sending me flying too fast to land properly. I hit the ground painfully, curling up into a ball to brace for the inevitable next attack. I heard some yelling but couldn't figure out who it was or what they were saying.

I stared at the charging Luxio fearfully. The fierceness and hatred in his eyes were clearly illustrated. But then I saw a figure enter the scene from the left. A black furred pokémon with yellow rings appeared in front of me and tackled the Luxio. The Luxio was knocked into the ground. The new arrival turned to me.

"Are you alright, Hickory?" he said, offering me a paw.

"T-thanks, Spruce," I said quietly as he helped me up. Looking past Spruce, I saw Falc dive down towards the Skuntank engulfed in flames, inflicting massive damage with his flare blitz.

Spruce nodded and, once I was standing, ran off to deal with the raiders. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay standing due to the pain all over my body from the attacks and collapsed back onto the ground. My sides were screaming from the indents made by the points on the Pinsir's pincers. My tail felt numb from the thunderbolts and sludge bombs. I willed myself to not faint. I spotted Hooves and Cedar rushing to the scene before closing my eyes, breathing heavily. The sounds of the fight soon faded away.

Maple's POV

I was currently wandering around the forest, trying to find wherever my mate had run off to with Captain Falcon. _Why does he always have to ditch me?_ I complained, thinking about how much time he spends doing the night guard.

I checked the all the usual guard meeting places and our den. Then I wandered around the forest randomly, hoping I would run into him by chance. After some time, I decided to just give up and head to the field to tend to my garden, but on the way there, I saw a bunch of Pokémon heading towards a crowd. I shrugged and followed along. _Maybe I'll find Spruce there,_ I hoped.

There was a crowd of about thirty pokémon gathered here. I spotted Captain Falcon flying overhead and shouting, which probably meant Spruce was here as well. I noticed Hooves the rapidash rushing amongst the crowd, talking really fast. At the edge of the crowd, I saw the familiar red and orange fur of Hickory. I would have been glad to see him, except that he was lying on the ground, unconscious. _What happened to him?_ I thought, worried, as I rushed over.

Hickory had nasty wounds along both of his sides and the fur on his tail was a mess. I was panicking until I saw that he was still breathing slowly, his chest rising slightly Cedar the Herdier was standing next to Hickory. "Good afternoon, Maple," he greeted me with.

"Hey Cedar. What happened to Hickory?" I quickly asked, not taking my eyes off of my unaware friend.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. He got attacked by raiders, but it wasn't anything serious. He should be waking up soon," Cedar said calmly.

"Oh, that's good to know," I breathed out, relieved. "Thanks."

"No problem. Now, I'm gonna go back to dealing with this crowd," he said, heading off.

"Wait, what's with the crowd?" I asked.

"We had a big fight with three raiders. It attracted quite a bit of attention," he explained. "Hickory was fighting all three of them alone before the rest of us came. Good thing we got here, because Hickory was in pretty bad shape. He fainted a short while after we got there, but we handled the raiders after that."

"You're sure he'll be alright?" I asked.

"Positive. He'll wake up anytime now. How about you watch him for me?"

"Okay, that's good. Sure, I'll watch him."

I felt a sinking feeling of dread as I looked down at Hickory. He looked weak and in pain. _I can't imagine losing Hickory only after he just came back home… What those raiders just did to Hickory was this close to happening to me, twice! And it could happen to me at any time, anywhere!_ Right now, as I looked at Hickory's beaten up body, the raiders were more scary to me than ever before.

Hickory's POV

The first thing I felt when I woke up was the soreness in my sides and tail. I opened my eyes and was bombarded with daylight, making me dizzy. I tried moving a little, which made me groan quietly. I heard a ton of chatter and saw a crowd of pokémon to my left.

"Oh, Hickory! You're awake!" said a familiar voice.

I turned my head to the right and my eyes focused in on my favorite Leafeon. "Maple? Uh… where am I?"

"Apparently the guard defeated three raiders. It attracted a large crowd."

"They did defeat the raiders? That's comforting to know," I said.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"I saw a Pokémon in trouble, he was being attacked by the three raiders. I tried to fight them off, but they overwhelmed me. Luckily, I was saved by-" I suddenly recalled who my savior was- "Spruce…" The thought sank in. _Spruce saved me…_

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I was looking for Spruce, but then I saw you passed out at the side of the crowd. I was really, really worried, but Cedar said you would be fine and would be waking up soon. He asked me to watch over you."

I felt really happy that she cared for me like that. I felt much better already.

I suddenly heard Falc bellow over the crowd, "Guard members! Come here, I have to talk to you all!"

I saw the crowd make way for Hooves, Cedar, and Spruce to get through. "I guess I should go join them," I told Maple as I started to walk slowly.

"Do you want some help walking?" she offered.

"Uh…" _I could use some help, but being seen side by side with Maple would not be pleasant in front of Spruce and Hooves…_ "I'll be alright, thanks though," I said.

"Are you sure?" she offered again.

"Y-yeah, I-I'll be fine," I assured her, although I didn't sound very convincing.

She looked at me carefully for a second, but then said, "Alright, see ya," and walked off.

I slowly made my way to the other four guard members. When I arrived, Falc and Cedar looked surprised to see me up, and Hooves looked joyous.

"You're up and about already!" Hooves exclaimed.

"Yep, three raiders won't stop me!" I responded. Then I turned to Spruce. "Hey Spruce, uh... thanks for saving me."

He nodded. "You're welcome," he said, quite sincerely.

"Alright guys, here's the deal," said Falc. We all turned to him. "I see right now as the perfect opportunity to reverse directions on the raiders and become the aggressors. We'll go into their forest and take care of those troublemakers. That's the only way we can ensure the safety of everyone here."

Falc's idea seemed like a good strategic move, except…

"Just the five of us?" Hooves voiced my thoughts.

"No, we'll get as many able-bodied males who are present in this crowd right now to join us," said Falc.

"You want to gather a huge party and invade their forest? That sounds pretty extreme," I said immediately.

The best defense is a good offense," said Hooves. "I agree with you, Falc."

"Well, if it means no more raiders, I'm on board," said Cedar.

"How are you going to get others to go along with you?" I asked.

"I can make a good speech," said Falc confidently. "We will lead the campaign. I'm thinking of heading out later this afternoon. Although… Hickory, I don't think you should go, since you took a bit of a beating just now."

I wasn't convinced that this was a good idea at all. "Promise me that you won't harm any of the Pokémon over in that forest who don't resist you," I said. "Otherwise you'll be acting just as bad as the raiders who come here and threaten our pokémon."

"I can promise you that for sure," Falc said. Cedar and Hooves agreed wholeheartedly.

 _Well, I guess that's that. They're going out to invade Spike's forest and I'm stuck here since I'm injured. As long as they don't harm anyone innocent it'll be fine,_ I convinced myself.

"Hey Spruce, you haven't said anything about this yet," Hooves said.

"Uh, well, you're idea seems like a good idea and all, but I don't think I want to go on the campaign," he said.

 _That's odd,_ I thought immediately. _I thought Spruce would jump at any opportunity to show his strength and superiority._

Falc and Hooves looked at Spruce as if he had just evolved again or something. "Why would you not go?" Falc demanded.

"Unlike all you guys, I have a mate," Spruce retorted haughtily.

"So?" Hooves challenged.

"So, I can't leave my mate alone at home while I go off invading other forests. I'm already not spending enough time with her because of doing the night watch. Plus I need to be with her in case raiders attack her. I promised her I would protect her."

"You would still be protecting her by stopping the raiders once and for all," Falc pointed out.

"What will all these Pokémon think if one of their guard refuses to go on the campaign? They won't join us in our plans and you'll be the laughing stock of the forest!" Hooves exclaimed.

There was a long pause. Spruce shifted his paws uncomfortably while the other four of us stared at him, awaiting his response. I was debating whether I should help Spruce out of this or not. _I could spend lots of time with Maple if Spruce is out invading other forests,_ I thought. _But then again, he did just save me…_

"Uh… yeah, I guess you're right," Spruce admitted slowly. "It might ruin our recruitment."

"You want to be known as the guy who protects the forest, not the guy who torchic'd out of protecting the forest!" Hooves made sure to point out again.

"Yeah, you're right… I'll join your campaign," Spruce said definitively.

 _Well, I guess he's going for it. I was actually starting to get a positive view of Spruce after he saved me, but no, he's abandoning his mate for this. Not that I object of course!_ I thought mischievously. I felt bad for thinking selfishly like that though, even if it was about someone I disliked. I again had to remind myself that Spruce had just saved me.

"Hey Hickory, when you're feeling better, can you do the night watch while we're gone?" Falc asked.

"I guess, but why would you need a night guard if you're now the ones doing the attacking against the raiders?"

"It'll keep most pokémon feeling safe and happy when they have a night guard. And besides, what's a proper guard without a night guard? That's just the way it is," Falc said matter-of-factly.

"Well, if you say so," I said, even though I didn't really understand his reasoning.

Maple's POV

Seeing that there wasn't much of interest anymore, the crowd started to disperse. "Hey everyone! Listen up!" I heard Captain Falcon, who was perched on a thick branch overlooking the area, yell as loud as he could. Everyone turned back towards him, excitedly waiting to hear what he had to say to them.

"Today, we, the Guard, defeated three raiders! That might not sound like a lot, but it certainly is a lot!" The crowd listened attentively to the flame colored bird.

"We've endured about a year of random attacks from those senseless raiders, have we not?" The crowd shouted in agreement.

"I say we've had enough of their ruthless ways, don't you all think?" The crowd shouted in agreement again.

"We, the Guard, have decided it's time to take the fight to them! We will have no more random attacks and no more fear of running into them at the night once we are the ones who attack their forest! We're gonna end the raider threat once and for all in one fell swoop! In order to do that, we want all able bodied males who know a thing or two about fighting to join us in our campaign against the raiders! We will stop them all in one invasion of their forest, and after that, no one here will have to like in fear of those evil raiders ever again! Who's with me?!"

The crowd cheered loudly for Captain Falcon. "We are!" I heard several scattered males yell.

"Everyone who wants to join our campaign, meet us at the edge of the forest that-a-way," he instructed, pointing with his wing, "the side that leads towards the raider forest. We'll be heading out this afternoon. Everyone be ready! Tell anyone you run into! I expect to see ya'll there!"

The crowd cheered once more and dispersed in high spirits. I started looking for Spruce amongst the scurrying crowd when I realized something important...

 _Wait, if they're going on a campaign, that means... Spruce is leaving me…_


	10. Chapter 10

Maple's POV

I was waiting at our den for Spruce to come, ready to confront him about going on this campaign. I returned home right after the crowd meeting ended and had been waiting since. I was expecting Spruce to come home right after, but he didn't. While waiting for him, I practiced making some more energy balls.

It was late afternoon and Spruce still hadn't returned. _What if he's not even going to show up, and he's going straight on his campaign right now?_ The thought of him leaving without even seeing me made me shiver. I shook my head. _He wouldn't do that… right?_

I was in the middle of forming an energy ball when I finally saw Spruce coming. For a moment I felt like testing out my energy ball on him after having to wait all day for him. I fired the energy ball at the ground and looked towards him. I could already see the guilty expression on his face.

"Where have you been all day?!" I demanded.

"I was helping organize the campaign," he said, avoiding eye contact.

"Who said you're going on that campaign?"

"Maple, dear, it's my duty to go on this campaign," he said bluntly, looking me in the eyes hard. I flinched from his stare and looked away, my confidence shattered.

"B-but w-what about your duty to your m-mate…?" I countered meekly.

"Listen," he said, placing his paw on my shoulder, "I have to do this because-"

"Because why?!" I snapped.

"Because if I, a guard member, don't go, other pokémon will see our plans as weak, and then they won't join us."

"Good, then you don't have to go," I responded.

"Don't you want to defeat the raiders once and for all?" he said. "This is for the good of our entire forest."

"Hickory's a guard member, but he's not going on the campaign," I brought up.

"That's because he's injured from the fight this morning and isn't in a fighting condition."

I sighed and turned away from him.

"Hey, listen," he said softly, walking around to look at me. "I won't have to do any of this Guard stuff anymore after the raiders are defeated once and for all. After there are no more raiders, I can be with you all the time. I mean it. I promise."

I looked into his eyes and saw some genuine emotion. "Okay… do you really promise this time?"

"Of course I do. When have I ever broken a promise?"

"Well, when I asked you to quit the night guard-"

"Never mind, don't worry, this promise is for real this time, I promise. Now, I gotta quickly go back. I'll see you very soon, okay?"

He came up to me and nuzzled me quickly before saying, "Bye," and running off. I sighed and looked down, not bothering to watch him run off. The sound of the rough pounding of paws fading as he ran off rang in my ears.

I went inside, lied down on the bed, and rested my head on my paws with a sigh, but then I decided not to waste the rest of the day moping and do something because there was still some time left in the day. I headed over to the field to take care of the plants. Once I got there, I realized that I really wasn't in the mood for work. But I sighed and got started anyway, starting with the Oran plants, then moving on to the Figy plants. While I was doing that, I heard some pawsteps. I turned and saw a familiar Arcanine walking my way, carrying an empty basket made of leaves with her tail.

"Good afternoon, Maple," she greeted pleasantly.

"Hey Cassie," I said, although I sounded sad and unenthusiastic.

"Why the long face?" she asked, catching on immediately.

"O-oh, uh… just… growing the plants is hard work today," I lied.

"...Really now? Are you sure that's the only reason?" she asked.

"Well… actually it's because I'm kinda upset about something…"

"Care to share?" she asked, taking a seat on the grass to show that she was willing to stick around and listen.

"Alright…" I agreed, also sitting down. "Do you know about how our guard is going on a campaign to invade the raiders' forest?"

"Yes, I do. I heard from three Mightyenas who were running around the forest and telling everybody."

"Well, Spruce is going on the campaign."

"Oh, I see. You're upset because he's leaving to go on the campaign?"

I nodded.

"Don't you worry about him, Maple. He'll come back in one piece, no doubt about it. Everyone knows he's one of the strongest pokémon in our forest. Plus, I walked by the crowd of pokémon who are preparing to go on the campaign, and there are so many of them that they can't lose. Your mate will be perfectly fine."

"I know he'll be back in one piece, it's not that. What I'm upset about is how he's leaving me home alone while he goes marching off to other forests. He already spends half of his days sleeping during the day because he does the night guard half the time. To me it's like he's not here half the time. Now he's leaving our forest entirely. I wish he could spend more time with his mate."

"Hmm… I understand now. Well, look at the bright side. They'll be destroying the raiders once and for all in this campaign. After they come back, we won't need a guard anymore. Then Spruce will be all yours. No more raiders will be interfering with your safety or your relationship."

"I guess you're right…" I said uncertainly.

"You of all Pokémon should be the most glad that they're heading out to destroy the Raiders. You've been attacked by then not once, but twice! Don't you want the Raiders to never come here again?"

"Yeah, of course… but why does Spruce have to go?" I said solemnly.

"Trust me, everything will be perfect once they come back from their campaign," she assured, placing her paw on my shoulder.

 _Cassie's right, I should look at the bright side!_ I quickly cheered up. "You're right. Thank you, Cassie!"

"My pleasure," she chuckled happily. "It's never hard to cheer you up. You were never the crying type," she said with a smile.

"So, I see that basket right there," I said, pointing at the basket held by her tail. "Let's fill it up."

"You don't mind, do you? You said you were upset because today's growing was hard work," she checked with me.

"Oh, that was my failed attempt at lying," I said sheepishly. "On the contrary, a friend of mine has been teaching me how to grow the plants even faster now. I'm glad to give you plenty of berries for your family!" I said cheerfully.

We went around my garden, filling her basket up with all kinds of berries, making it a colorful mix. "Where are your pups? They're usually the ones who pick the berries for you," I asked.

"Max is taking them out exploring today,"she answered.

"He's not going on the campaign, huh?"

"No way. He's got pups to take care of with me. I daresay he wouldn't want to leave me and our kids behind either!"

"You're so lucky that Max puts you and your pups before everything else," I said sadly.

"Like I said before, you'll be Spruce's sole angel once he gets back," she assured.

Once we were done, we chatted s little more until she decided to go.

"Stay positive!" she told me.

"Thanks! I will!" I said.

After she was gone, I continued maintaining the garden. The last bush I got to was the Custap bush in the middle of the garden. I gathered as much grass energy as could then directed it into the Custap bush. The bush glowed bright green all over and started growing as rapidly as the other bushes. My eyes widened in surprise as I watched the stubbornly hard to grow bush that's been bothering me for months flourish. Once all of my powers were depleted, I took a step back and marveled at the now well grown plant. Brand new buds were just waiting to bloom.

 _How am I suddenly able to grow it by so much today?_ I wondered in amazement. I thought of the possible reason. _Hickory said if I practice my powers, they'll get stronger. Maybe since I've been practicing energy ball all this time, I can grow plants much better too. I'll have to ask him about that._ Then I remembered that he was injured from whatever happened this morning. _How did I not remember? I was too angry about Spruce leaving that I completely forgot about my injured friend! I need to go see him,_ I decided.

It was late afternoon, but the sun wasn't setting yet, so there was still plenty of time. Giving the healthy Custap plant a final look, I headed off towards Hickory's den. Despite not heading there often ever since eeveehood days, I remembered the way clearly. The walk to his den reminded me of the good old days before Hickory disappeared.

 _I was on my way to Hickory's den to see if he could play. He was lying on his back under the Figy tree outside his den. His fluffy brown ears perked up as I approached him._

" _Hi Hickory!" I greeted him._

" _Hey Maple!" he said, rolling over and standing up._

" _What are you doing?" I asked._

" _Nothing much, really."_

" _In that case, let's go play!"_

" _Sure! I'll just go ask my parents quickly." He rushed over to the entrance of his den, his tail wagging eagerly from the excitement._

" _Mom? Dad? Can I go play with Maple?" he asked._

" _Sure you can, dear," Hickory's mom answered._

" _As long as you're back by dark," his dad's added._

" _Thanks!" he called back. He came running back to me with a smile. "What do you want to do today?" he asked._

" _Let's go exploring!" I suggested eagerly. "Pick a direction and let's go!"_

 _We went running off to explore whatever we ran into. There wasn't anything very interesting until we came across a massive tree. The trunk was twice as wide as an Eevee from side to side, and there were so many branches and leaves you couldn't see the sky if you were under it._

" _Let's climb this!" I suggested eagerly._

" _Race you to the top!" he challenged, running up to the trunk._

 _I followed him up the tree, leaping from branch to branch to make my way up. As we ascended, the leaves started thinning out and the sunlight started filtering in. By the time I caught up with Hickory, we were both exhausted. We decided to work together to get to the top of the tree by lifting and pulling each other to the next branch. We still couldn't get to the very top, but oh well._

 _Looking out at the forest, I saw something bright red in between the trees. "Hey Hickory, do you see that red bush over there?" I asked, pointing._

 _He looked where I was pointing for a moment, then said, "I don't see what you're talking about."_

" _Look closer in between the trees. See the bush with red flowers?"_

 _He looked around for a while. "Okay, I think see,"he eventually said._

" _It's a Custap berry plant!" I exclaimed._

" _How can you tell?"_

" _The flowers make it obvious. Let's go down and get to the plenty! I see two berries on it, one for you, one for me!"_

" _But… we have to cross a river…"_

" _But there are Custap berries! C'mon!" I started jumping down the branches._

" _Wait up!"_

 _After we reached the ground, I dashed in the direction of the berries, wagging my tail eagerly. I looked back and saw Hickory trudging along behind me. I stopped and waited for him at the river. Looking closely, I could see some red flowers of the Custap plant on the other side. Luckily, my mom, a Vaporeon, taught us both how to swim._

 _Hickory walked up to my side. "Do we_ have _to swim across?" he complained. I didn't know why he hated swimming._

" _Yes, we do," I insisted. "Don't you want a Custap Berry?"_

" _The plant might not even have any berries ready," he argued._

" _We won't know until we get there and look! C'mon!"_

" _We can walk down the river and hope for a crossing."_

" _I didn't see any when looking from the tree though. Besides, the bush is right there, so we should cross here!"_

" _You know how much I hate swimming…"_

" _I'll be right here next you just in case," I promised._

" _But…"_

" _C'mon! Custap Berries!"_

" _You can go on your own," he said._

 _I didn't think he would be so adamant on this. "That's no fun…" I complained. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'll make sure of it," I promised. Even though he didn't like to swim, I knew he had it in him._

 _He was silent for a few moments. "Alright," he finally agreed._

 _I jumped into the water and started swimming across. After a moment, I heard a splash behind me, indicating that he was following. I looked back. His expression showed that he was concentrating heavily on swimming. I grinned at him, which made his expression lighten up as he smiled back. I slowed down to allow him to catch up so we could swim side by side. It was smooth swimming all the way across. He was able to get across fine, without any help._

" _I knew you had it in you!" I told him as we climbed out of the water._

" _Heh, I guess," he said. We shook as much water out of our fur as we could, laughing as we did. "So, where are those Custap berries?"_

 _The plant was huge and had bright red blooming flowers everywhere. Looking up, I saw a break in the trees, which allowed the Custap bush to get as much sunlight as a plant in a wide open field. We looked all around the plant but we couldn't see any berries. I looked disappointed._

" _Let's search through the leaves. I'm sure we can find at least one berry in there," Hickory suggested._

" _You're right!" I said. I went forward excitedly and stuck my head through the outer leaves eagerly, making a rustling sound. I was expecting and hoping to see tons of delicious Custap berries inside. However, all I could see in there were leaves and branches._

 _I pulled my head out of the bush. Hickory was right next to me. "Aww… I don't see any berries," I reported._

" _I'll take a look," he said. He stuck his head into the bush._

" _See anything?" I asked._

" _Maybe," he said._

 _I stuck my head back in next to him. "I think I see one to the right," he murmured. He brought a paw in to reach for the berry. I looked towards where he was reaching and saw, amidst the many branches and leaves, a small bit of bright red. Hickory took a step further into the bush to get a better reach. He moved the leaves and branches out of the way, revealing the berry. "Hey, there are two!" he announced. He reached out to grab them but then..._

" _Argh!" he exclaimed as he lost his balance and fell. There were loud crunching sounds as the delicate branches below him snapped under his weight._

" _Heehee!" I giggled._

" _Hey, you're the one who wanted the berries," he complained. "Help me up."_

" _Grab the berries and I'll pull you out," I said._

 _He reached out with his paw and plucked the berries off of their branches. I grabbed his sides to help him up and out of the bush. Once we were out, he placed the two Custap berries on the ground. We both had bits of leaves and stuff all over our ears and cream colored neck fur._

 _We looked at the Custap berries, which looked soft and bright red. "Thank you for grabbing them," I said gratefully._

" _You were the one who found the bush from the top of that tree, so thank you," he replied._

 _We both took one berry each. I started off with a small bite out of mine. The berry was delightfully soft and juicy. My ears and tail perked up slightly as the sweetness enveloped my tongue._

" _These are so good!" I exclaimed._

" _They certainly are," he agreed. "Super rare too, though."_

" _Next time I see one of these, I'm going to plant it in the field. Then we can have all the Custap berries we want!"_

" _Heh, only if you can resist eating it before planting it!"_

" _Hey! I'm not_ that _crazy for Custap berries!"_

" _Yes you are! We crossed a whole river for these berries!"_

" _But I always share with you," I argued._

" _That's true," he said with a smile._

" _I'll still share with you after I grow my own Custap plant," I promised._

" _I don't know, my mom says these berries are not only rare, but also super hard to grow. If it's hard for a Leafeon to grow a Custap plant, how hard will it be for an Eevee?"_

" _I can do it! I promise you!"_

It's been a long time, but I'm almost done with that promise. I smiled, the memories cheering me up.

Soon I was at Hickory's den. Hickory was lying on the leaf bed that I helped him make the day he came back. He lifted his head up when he heard my pawsteps. He was looking sad, but his expression instantly cheered up when he saw me. His expression cheered me up as well.

I smiled at him. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Could be better," he said. "My sides and tail aren't so good, but I'll be better tomorrow."

"Would you like me to get some Oran berries for you?" I offered.

"Maybe later," he said. "You just got here."

"What exactly happened to you?" I asked.

"I saw two raiders beating up an innocent pokémon this morning. I just had to go help. Except there was a third raider who showed up later, and I couldn't handle three opponents at once. I'm so glad the guard showed up when they did. Otherwise… I might not be here…"

I gulped, feeling a little uneasy. The thought of Hickory getting hurt by raiders gave me the chills the same way I feel when Spruce doesn't show up at sunrise, even though he's usually just on the other side of the forest and making his way back.

"Spruce was the one who save me," Hickory mentioned quietly.

"Good thing he did, I don't want to think about losing you again. It'll be like when you were captured."

Hickory looked at me and smiled. After a moment, he asked, "How did you and Spruce meet? I would love to hear the story."

I felt glad that Hickory was asking. For some reason, I had a feeling he didn't like Spruce before. I guess he changed his mind after Spruce saved him this morning. "It was about a year ago, about the time the raiders started coming," I started with. "There had been a big thunderstorm the night before I met Spruce. I had been at my garden the whole day to take care of the plants, which had taken a beating from the storm. By the time it was nighttime…"

 _Even though it was dark now, I was almost done taking care of the garden and wanted to get it all finished. I was focusing on the last plant, made difficult because it was dark, so I didn't hear the rough pounding of paws behind me until it was too late. There was a menacing looking Skuntank and an equally scary Pinsir dashing towards me. I felt fear course through me._

 _The Skuntank shot a glob of poisonous stuff out of his mouth. I shrieked as the attack whizzed past my shoulder, exploding on the plant I was working on, the very last injured one._

" _W-why are you attacking me?!" I yelped at the aggressors._

 _The two Pokémon gave no response. The Pinsir's two things glowed and turned sharp. I turned to run but it was too late. The Pinsir slashed at my side diagonally with his two blades. I yelped in pain from the attack, falling over. My side was stinging with pain._

" _HELP!" I screamed as loud as I could. A dark wave of energy was created and fired at me by the Skuntank. The attack felt like I had ran into a tree. Next, the Pinsir picked me up in his pincers and flung me across the field. I landed on my side hard and ended up rolling over several times painfully. Curling up in a ball, I closed my eyes and braced myself for whatever attack was coming next._

 _Nothing happened to me. I heard several loud noises, yells, and growls, but they weren't directed at me. I slowly opened my eyes and uncurled. An Umbreon was here to save me! He stood in front of me, standing in the way of the two evil pokémon. His black fur stood out against his brightly glowing yellow rings._

 _All I heard my savior say was, "How dare you attack an innocent female in my forest, you… you_ raiders _!" before I fainted from the attacks I had taken._

 _Despite the soft material I was somehow resting on, my sides felt terrible. I snapped my eyes open and found that I was on a leaf bed in a den._

 _The Umbreon was to the side of me, watching me. "Ah, you're finally awake!" he said. His voice sounded very strong and powerful._

" _Where am I?" I asked quietly._

" _This is my den. You fell unconscious, so I brought you here for your safety. I'm Spruce. My dear lady, may I have your name?"_

" _I'm Maple. Thank you so much, Spruce."_

" _Maple. What a beautiful sounding name. Anything for you, Maple. Those ruffians were the same guys who attacked my friend earlier today. Now, why were they attacking such a beautiful looking creature like you?"_

 _I found myself blushing from his compliment. "I-I don't k-know why, they just came up behind me and attacked me for no reason… I don't know what would have happened to me if you weren't there..." I muttered._

" _I got you some berries from the garden in that field. I know it's stealing but I did it just for you."_

" _I'm the one who grows the garden…" I told him._

" _You do such a lovely job with your garden," he complimented._

" _Thanks," I said meekly, blushing again._

" _Why don't you stay here with me for a few days while you get better?" He offered._

" _Oh… I don't want to be any more of a bother for you…" I said._

" _It's my pleasure to have you here. It's no problem at all. No problem at all."_

"I stayed with him for however long it took to heal all my injuries from the attack. Even after I was all better, he insisted that I stay with him. I was really touched when he first told me his feelings. I was really happy. We were always together. But then he joined Captain Falcon's brand new Guard, started doing night watches, and not he's going on a campaign to invade another forest! Sometimes I feel like Spruce doesn't love me anymore…"

"Do you love him?" Hickory asked.

Spruce's promise to come back came to mind before I answered. "Of course I do," I said after a moment. _Why did I hesitate?_ For some reason Spruce's promise to quit the night watch was fresh in my mind.

"That Pinsir and Skuntank must have been the same raiders who attacked me this morning…" he said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"The raiders… they scare me…" I admitted. "I've been attacked by them twice. I've seen Spruce come home injured after a fight, and here you are now, unable to travel because of your injuries. I hope I never have to see raiders anymore after this campaign."

"Don't you want to find out why they attacked you?" he asked.

"No, I just want them to stop attacking me!" I exclaimed.

"Well I do want to know. No one attacks others without reason. I have to find out why they attack us. So far I know that the raiders say they're attacking the guard members because we beat them up, but I need to figure out how this all started. Falc says they just started attacking him and the rest all of a sudden."

"Well, Spruce told me that day was the first day they encountered the raiders," I brought up. "They had fought those two and a Luxio earlier that day."

"That must've been the first time. I guess to solve this mystery I need to figure out why they attacked that first time," Hickory figured.

"Are you sad you can't go on the campaign?" I asked.

"Well, I guess I could've figured out more about the raiders on the campaign… but I'm not upset, because I get to spend time with you," he said, his expression changing to a smile.

I smiled back at him, feeling happy. He looked away though. _At least my best friend is here,_ I thought.

"I-I mean, I don't want you to be lonely," he explained after a moment of happy silence. "And we can continue training, if you want. There's one more important move that I really want to teach you."

"Yeah, I definitely want to learn something new! I've been working on my energy ball, by the way. I can make them bigger now."

"Awesome. You should be ready for what comes next."

"What will you teach me next?" I asked eagerly.

"You'll find out tomorrow," he said.

"Aw come on! Why can't you tell me?"

"Well… I have a whole thing planned for tomorrow, and telling you now would ruin it," he explained.

"Alright, fine, I'll wait until tomorrow…" I looked at him, but then, upon seeing his injuries, realized something. "Are you sure you'll be feeling okay to train tomorrow? You don't look too good right now. I can wait a few days for you to get better if you need," I said. As much as I wanted to learn something new, I didn't want him to have to train with me while he was still hurt.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be as good as new tomorrow. I'm sure of it. Now, you better head back to your den before it gets too dark."

I looked behind me and was surprised by how dark it was. "Yeah, I better head out," I said, walking out. "See you tomorrow! Feel better!"

"I will! Don't you worry!"

The sky was a dark purple, almost dark. Some stars were already dully visible. I quickly took the familiar way to the field and then to Spruce's and my den.

I felt a little lonely in the den, but I guess I was kinda used to it because Spruce wasn't here to sleep with me half the time because he was the night guard. Still, it felt odd since he wasn't going to be here tomorrow morning. I didn't feel too bad though. I had training with Hickory tomorrow to look forward to.


	11. Chapter 11

Maple's POV

The next morning, I went to the field. It was a cloudy day, but oh well. Hickory wasn't there, but his den was farther away from the field so it was understandable that he wasn't here yet. I went to my garden. The normal plants didn't need maintaining everyday, but I wanted to check on the Custap bush. It was growing faster than normal after I used my growing powers on it yesterday. I gathered some energy to grow it again. I noticed that less energy came to me that time than usual, probably because of the cloudy day. I sent my energy into the plant. After energy ball training, I didn't have to close my eyes and focus for a long time in order to grow the plants anymore. The energy just came to me naturally now, and it was always much stronger.

Hickory still wasn't here, nor was there and sign of him coming. _He's probably still injured and at his den. I'll go see him,_ I decided.

I walked over to his den and found him still on his leaf bed, fast asleep. The bruises and injuries on his sides and tail were still visible. I walked up to him, about to shake him awake, but upon seeing the injuries decided to let him sleep more. I sat down on the ground to wait for him to wake up, but then realized it was weird to sit here watching him sleep, so I walked out of his den.

I sat outside his den and tried to think of something to do while I waited for him to wake up. My eyes landed on a particular tree outside his den. I smiled as memories came to me of that tree. It was a hickory tree, the one Hickory was named after. Back in the day, the tree had light bark and bright green leaves. The bark was rough with many indents, which made it perfect for climbing. Hickory and I learned how to climb trees on this tree. It was easy to climb to the top because it was shorter than the rest of the trees and because of its bark. Looking at the tree now, though, its colors were a lot duller and it was missing almost all of its leaves, probably because it was overshadowed by the other trees around it. Hickory's mother used to take care of this tree every day, so the tree was able to thrive without as much sunlight. When Hickory's parents moved away, the tree must've started dying.

I peeked back into Hickory's den and saw that he was stirring. I eagerly walked in to greet him. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" I said cheerfully.

"Huh? Oh, hey Maple," he said groggily, stretching out on his leaf bed.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

"Ugh, I feel sore and sluggish now," he complained. "My sides and tail still hurt quite a bit."

"Oh…"

"Sorry, I don't think I can do much training with you today. Maybe tomorrow."

"That's alright, whenever you feel better we can start. It doesn't have to be tomorrow."

He started to get up, but his face showed some signs of strain. "Are you alright?" I asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine, all I need is some time. It's just some aching after a battle, nothing serious," he reassured me.

"Are you hungry? It's already midday."

"Really?" He asked, looking outside. "It doesn't look very bright out yet."

"It's a cloudy day today, that's why," I explained.

Hickory's belly rumbled. "Heh, I guess that answers your question," he chuckled. "Want to head to the field?"

"Sure," I agreed.

Hickory got up from his bed and we walked out. I walked at a normal pace, but quickly realized that Hickory was lagging behind. I slowed down so that he could catch up, watching his tentative movements carefully.

 _It's all because of those raiders that my best friend is injured like this. I'm so scared of them..._

"I'm totally fine, Maple. You don't have to worry," said Hickory, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I was just thinking about the raiders who did this to you… I'm so scared of them…"

"Falc's campaign should keep them busy and away from our forest," Hickory reminded me.

When I looked unconvinced, Hickory paused the walk and put his paw on my shoulder. "Listen, there's nothing to be afraid about."

"Yes there is!" I exclaimed. "I've been attacked by them twice, and I don't know what would've happened if it weren't for Spruce and you. And look at you right now, after the raider attack. How can I not be scared?"

"You have the power to defend yourself now. You don't have to be scared. Whether or not you choose to be scared is your choice. I would recommend the latter."

"You have the power to defend yourself, but you still got really hurt," I brought up.

He paused for a moment. "That was because I was being stupid," he said. "I was trying to talk the raiders out of fighting instead of fighting my hardest. I could have ran away or even beaten them if that was what I had in mind. There was one point where I had them knocked down and vulnerable. I could've defeated them with a fire blast, but I was being stupid and tried talking instead."

"Maybe you need to stop trying to talk with the raiders and just plain defeat them," I suggested. I realized afterward that my suggestion sounded rather harsh, but I didn't mean it to be.

He sighed. "I know I should, and it's what Falc told me too. But I just have to figure out their motives. It's just the way I am. No one is born bad, they're taught to be bad. You know how much I want to figure out why they come here and attack us."

"But you're risking yourself in the process. I don't want you to get hurt! You're my best friend, remember?"

"...I'll try not to take any more risks in the future. No more negotiating, just fighting. Now, I'm still hungry, can we keep walking?"

I didn't feel reassured about the raider situation, or convinced that Hickory would not risk trying to figure out the raiders more, but I decided not to bring either concern up again, at least for now. It was still cloudy, so the field was not much brighter than the forest. After eating some berries, specifically Oran berries for healing wounds, Hickory started me off on a new move.

"Okay, so before I can teach you the new move, your powers need to be strong enough to perform it. Let me see your energy ball."

I formed as big an energy ball as I could and fired it at the ground. Upon impact, there was a crackling sound, dust puffed up, and dirt went flying.

"That's really good!" He complimented.

"Thanks, I've been practicing," I said.

"Alright, so in order to use this new move, you need to send grass energy into your tail. Let me see you do that."

I gathered my grass energy and directed it all to my tail. I moved my tail to the side and turned my head to see my tail glowing bright green.

"You need to keep putting energy in until your tail is completely glowing all bright green, almost white near the middle."

I continued putting my grass powers in, but it wouldn't glow any brighter. Soon I was feeling tired and feeling less and less grass energy. "That's the best I can do," I huffed.

"Are you sure? I bet you can get more," he said.

I tried my hardest but it wouldn't get brighter. Instead, the light started fading because I couldn't add any more energy and my tail was losing energy.

"I guess you need more energy. You won't be able to do the next step unless you can sustain that energy in your tail for long enough."

"So I'm not strong enough to proceed?" I asked, feeling disappointed.

"Don't worry, as you practice setting up the grass energy in your tail for the new move, you'll get better at it. You should be able to use less and less energy and effort. I want you to practice energizing your tail until you can sustain that energy in your tail for a noticeable period of time. Also, continue to practice energy ball and continue to grow plants with your powers, because any practice with your powers will strengthen them."

"Okay, I'll do that. What's the energy in my tail going to be used for? What's the new move?" I asked, curious. _It must be really powerful if I it needs this much energy,_ I assumed.

"I'll tell you when you've got the energy supply to do it," he said with a wink.

"Come on, why can't you tell me?" I complained.

"It's a secret until you're strong enough!" He said mischievously, grinning.

"Fine…"

Hickory's POV

After growing her garden using her grass powers all this time, I estimated that Maple was already capable of using energy ball properly. That's why she was able to do pick it up in one day and have full power energy balls in less than a week. But she's got some work to do until she's strong enough for the new move. I was still recovering from the attack, so I wasn't in the mood to do physical training. In the meantime, I might as well have her improve her grass energy capabilities while I recover physically.

It was taking me many more days than I expected to heal up after the fight with the raiders. I guess I really took pokémon centers for granted back when I was living with humans. I could walk around slowly, but I definitely needed to be in prime condition in order to perform well in the training I had planned.

Maple came to check on me every morning with a bright smile, which really made my day everyday. I thought she would be more sad because Spruce was away, but she was mostly her cheerful, determined self. I was glad that she wasn't saddened by his absence. Maple was rarely ever in a negative mood, except for some things regarding the raiders and raider attacks. She showed me her progress in energizing her tail. I was amazed by how much she improved each day. She was improving faster than some of the grass types I watched train, if I remembered correctly. She was quickly approaching the degree of grass power expertise at which the move could be performed.

"If you feel up to it, how about I teach you some stuff about gardening?" She offered one morning.

"That's sounds cool," I agreed.

Once at her garden, Maple snapped off several large leaves off of the Figy plants. "Let's make a berry basket for you to carry and store berries in," she said.

She showed me a weaving technique to construct the basket with. The finished product was as good as a human-made basket. Even better, because it smelled like Figy berries. I loved that smell.

Next, Maple taught me how to maintain the berry plants, such a how to make sure all the plants were getting enough sunlight, and how to pluck the weeds in a way that made sure they didn't grow back. I kind of had an idea of what to do while watching some human gardeners, but it seemed like Maple knew way more than them.

"How did you learn all of this?" I asked while we were positioning some branches into a beneficial growing pattern.

"Well, some stuff I figured out, but most of it I actually learned from your mother," she revealed. "After I evolved and told your mom I wanted to start a garden, she taught me everything she knew."

I found it amazing that I was learning my mom's knowledge through Maple. Back when I was an Eevee, I sometimes watched my mom garden and quickly concluded that it was really boring. That has changed now that I'm older and my best friend actually achieved her dream of making an awesome garden. I remember my mom saying she wanted me to evolve into a Leafeon so that I could learn her gardening tricks, which were apparently many generations worth of knowledge. Maple was the next best to pass the knowledge onto, and now, I was learning it all anyway. _When I see my parents again, I'm definitely going to show Mom some of this stuff._

At some point, an Arcanine followed by two Growlithes came by. "Hey Cassie!" Maple greeted the Arcanine.

"Hey Maple!" she replied. "Hi, I'm Cassie," she said, introducing herself to me.

"I'm Hickory," I said. I started to raise my paw for a respectful greeting, but then remembered that it was a human thing and stopped.

"Hickory is childhood friend back when we were Eevees," Maple explained. "He recently came back here."

"Welcome to our forest! Or perhaps welcome back! There have been less new pokémon coming here recently. It must be the raiders," Cassie remarked.

"Hey! You're Captain Falcon's buddy!" one of the Growlithes exclaimed, pointing his paw at me. "Brandon, don't you remember him?"

"Brian, it's rude to point," Cassie told her son.

"Yeah, I do!" said the other Growlithe. "Captain Falcon is so cool! You must be cool too, because you're his partner!"

I chuckled at what the boys were saying. _Falc sure is popular,_ I thought.

"Can you do what he does?" one of the boys asked.

"I can try," I said. "Stand back," I warned.

The boys nodded and took several steps back, eagerly awaiting whatever it was I would show them. I gathered up my fire energy for a fire blast. I created as much fire as I possibly could, which was quite a lot, given my extensive training. This big of a fire blast was not practical during a battle because it takes way too long to set up and way too hard to aim with, but it's perfect for showing off! I pointed my muzzle towards the sky and started releasing my flames. They gathered around my muzzle in a star formation and grew bigger and bigger until it was as wide as my body. Then I launched the fiery star into the sky.

The two Growlithes had their eyes glued to my fire blast as it went higher and higher, getting smaller and smaller, until it dissipated. I grinned at them.

"Woooooooow, that was SO COOL!" the boys said in unison, jumping up and down. "What else can you do? Show us!"

I showed them some other tricks such as making a Growlithe shape out of fire and some iron tail tricks. I was quickly getting tired though, because using moves in a cool way requires a lot more energy than using them for attacking.

"Your kids really like Hickory," Maple remarked.

"He seems to be good with children," Cassie complimented. "Speaking of kids, are you going to have kids?" Cassie asked Maple.

"It would be nice… but I don't think Spruce would want to," Maple answered.

I couldn't help but listen in. _Spruce is just not right for Maple,_ I found myself thinking.

"Why not?" asked Cassie.

"I don't know… he just isn't too good with children," Maple said.

 _I'm good with children,_ I thought as I played with the two Growlithes.

"I'm sure he'll have a change of heart later on," Cassie predicted.

"I hope so," said Maple.

 _I doubt it,"_ I thought. _All Spruce cares about is being the popular awesome night guard guy. Why does Maple have to be with him?_

The boys wanted to play more, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Show us more! Show us more!" the boys chanted endlessly.

"How about you two play with each other?" I suggested.

"But we always do that!"

"That's always what mom and dad say!"

"C'mon, one more trick?"

"Please?"

Another Arcanine showed up and was talking to Cassie and Maple, probably the boys' father. When I started walking away towards the Arcanine pair and Maple, the Growlithes grabbed my tail to try to hold me back. I tripped and fell, and the Growlithes hopped onto my back.

"Uh-oh, looks like my little angels are misbehaving," said Cassie with a chuckle.

"Mom, don't call me that! It sounds girly!" Brandon said to his mom.

"Tell you what," I huffed, "how about you go ask Maple to show you what she can do!"

"Okay!" the Growlithes said happily, jumping off of me and running towards Maple. "Can you show us some tricks?" they asked her.

Maple laughed. "I can show you boys some things that Hickory taught me, but it won't be as cool as what Hickory has shown you."

Maple brought the boys over to the garden and showed them growing the plants with her grass powers. The boys were just as captivated by her performance as they were with mine.

"Hey there, I'm Hickory," I said to the new Arcanine.

"I'm Max," he said, bowing his head politely. "I see my boys have taken a liking to you."

"Heh, yeah. They tired me out though," I chuckled.

"Oh yes, they tire me out everyday. But at the same time they always make me smile," he said.

"That's great to hear," I said.

"So, you didn't go on The Guard's campaign. It feels like I'm the only adult male who didn't go." He was exaggerating, but it was true that a lot of adult males left to go on the campaign.

"I would have gone, but I was injured a few days ago," I explained.

"I didn't go because I have these two to take care of," said Max, gesturing towards the boys. "A lot of fathers went off on the campaign, leaving their mates and children at home. I would never leave my family."

"I don't really like The Guard," he continued. "I know they're protecting us from the raiders, but I really don't see the problem being that big. I think they're just exaggerating, glorifying themselves. And they walk around the forest all high and mighty and important because they say they're protecting us. They're a bunch of arrogant, overconfident show offs. And everyone falls for it."

"That sounds a bit harsh," I remarked.

"That's how I see it, and I can't stand it," he said.

"Uh… Max, I'm part of The Guard," I said.

"You are?" he said, surprised.

"Yes. Now to be honest, most of the raider attacks are directed at the guard members, but we do guard our forest from the raiders for real. I will agree with you that the others kind of glorify themselves a little though."

"So you're part of The Guard and you didn't go on the campaign?" he asked skeptically.

"The Guard defeated three raiders a few days ago, which was a major victory. They decided to go on the campaign in order to push our current advantage and stop the raiders once and for all. I was severely injured in the fight, so they let me stay home and recover."

"Sounds like an awfully heroic story," Max remarked, looking at me suspiciously.

"It's all true though," Maple interjected. I turned towards her; apparently she had been listening for a while. "He's saved me from raiders before," she said.

"How did you join The Guard?" Max asked.

"Falc is my old friend," I said.

"You mean Captain Falcon? That guy doesn't seem like he's all that he says he is."

"Dad, Captain Falcon is the coolest guy in the world!" one of the boys exclaimed. "You should be more like him!"

"Brandon, just because someone looks cool doesn't mean he is cool," Max told his son.

"You're wrong dad, Captain Falcon is the greatest pokémon ever!" the other Growlithe proclaimed.

Max sighed. "See what that bird has done to my children?" he said, although he did crack a small smile.

I laughed. "You know, Falc's name used to be Fletchy, back when he was a tiny little fletchling. He used to be the size of your tails," I told the Growlithes. "Every morning he would wake everyone up with a sweet morning chirping song."

"Ew, singing is for girls!" said Brandon.

"But Captain Falcon always sang a lot," I said, smiling.

"Dad, I changed my mind. Captain Falcon isn't that cool after all."

"Me too. Let's go tell mom." They ran off towards Cassie and Maple.

"See Max, there's nothing to worry about," I said with a grin.

"Good thing, I was starting to feel concerned with them," he admitted.

"They'll get older and realize how awesome and important their dad is. Don't rush them."

"How are you so good with kids? Do you have kids?" He asked.

"No, I don't, but I've worked with a lot of kids in the past. I used to help out at a daycare."

"What's that?" He asked, confused.

"It's a place where humans drop off their young pokémon," _or their older pokemon when they want more young ones,_ I said in my head, wanting to keep that part out.

"What? Humans?"

"Oh yeah, I used to live with humans."

"Humans? Tell us about them!" One of the boys yelled. "Mom and dad say they're evil, but we don't believe them!" The other one added.

"Humans aren't evil," I said. "Well… some are, but most aren't. Just like how some pokémon are evil and some aren't. Would you like me to talk about them?"

"Please! Please!" The boys begged, jumping up and down.

"Max, Cassie, are you alright with this?" I asked, wanting to ask for permission first.

"I would love to hear all about humans myself," said Cassie.

"I suppose it would be good to hear," Max agreed.

And with that, I talked about some of my adventures. My life wasn't as action packed as I made it seem; I only picked out the most exciting parts in order to entertain the boys.

"Isn't Hickory the coolest?" Maple asked the boys.

"Yeah! Definitely!"

"He's my new hero now!"

I blushed from the compliments, mostly Maple's. She smiled at me, but I looked away sheepishly to hide a potential blush.

"Oh, not again… Hickory, could you kindly tell the boys not to believe in heroes again?" Max asked me.

"I don't know Max… they seem pretty hooked to me." The four adults laughed.

"Well, it's about time we get going," Cassie announced. "Boys, say thank you and bye to your new hero!"

Maple's POV

Today, finally, Hickory was all healthy and ready to teach me the new move. I couldn't wait to know what I would be doing with my tail. The sun was shining bright without a cloud in the sky, yet it still wasn't uncomfortably hot. It was the perfect day today. Before going to his den, I went into my garden to check on the Custap berry bush. I've been using my powers to grow it as much as possible these past few days. It was as tall as me now, with bright red flowers blooming everywhere. I directed my energy into it and watched it glow green.

To my slight disappointment, when I got to his den, Hickory was sleeping in, missing out on the beautiful day. I wanted to wake him up and get started, but I restrained myself. Sitting outside his den without much else to do, I started up an energy ball. It was so easy to do it now, unlike when Hickory first taught me. My powers really felt like a part of me now; they never did before. I easily created a ball of energy in front of me and poured my grass energy into it. Once it was so big I couldn't control it for much longer, I exhaled and fired it forward. The ball whizzed straight ahead and exploded on the trunk of a tree.

I stared in awe at the large dent I made in the old tree. But then I realized something...

 _Oh no! This is Hickory's special hickory tree, the one he was named after! And I just destroyed it! He's gonna be so mad!_ I frantically turned around and looked into his den. He was still asleep. _What am I going to do?_ I paced around, panicking. _Okay Maple, calm down. Think, how do you fix a tree?_ I jumped up as I realized, _I might be able to heal it with my powers!_ I've never tried growing anything except my berry bushes before. _It probably won't work, but it's worth a try…_

I faced the old hickory tree and transferred as much grass energy as I could to it, focusing on growing it. The huge dent in the trunk from where my energy ball hit glowed bright green, but nothing happened. I did all I could to send more of my grass energy to the tree. I still didn't know whether it would even work, but I poured all my will into repairing Hickory's special tree.

Remarkably, the trunk started growing back. My eyes widened. _It's working! It's really working!_ I was starting to feel tired now, using up all my grass energy, but I kept at it. I didn't know how long it took, but eventually the trunk was fully repaired. When I stopped sending the tree my energy, I immediately found myself breathing heavily and sweating from the effort. I immediately sat down on the grass.

 _It's amazing how my powers can both destroy and repair,_ I thought, staring at the healthy looking trunk. _I'm so glad Hickory taught me all of this!_

"That was really amazing, Maple!"

I jumped up, startled, and turn around. Hickory was standing there, grinning cheerfully. "W-when did you wake up? You scared me!"

Hickory laughed. "Sorry about that. I just got up. I saw you outside my den doing something, so I came out to see. Turns out you brought life back to my hickory tree! Now it's just like it was back when we were Eevees!"

"What?" I turned around and gasped. Not only had I repaired the trunk, the entire tree was budding with green leaves again, its branches back to a light brown, as if it was a young tree again merely waking up from winter!

"Oh my… I-I did _that_?!" I exclaimed. I tried to picture what the tree looked like just a few moments ago. It was definitely old and leafless, with its branches a dull, dark brown.

"Why are you surprised? Weren't you trying to revive the tree?" He asked, confused.

"No… I was only trying to repair the trunk… I was so concentrated on the trunk that I didn't realize I was growing the whole tree… No wonder it was so tiring…"

"Well anyway, you saved my hickory tree! When I just returned here, I was so sad that my tree was dying. My mom usually took great care of it, but I guess since my parents left it started to die. But you saved it! Thank you so much, Maple!" He came up to me and gave me a hug. I hugged him back, although a little guiltily.

"You shouldn't be thanking me…" I said as he let go. "Earlier, I was using energy ball and made a huge dent in your special tree by accident. I didn't realize it was special tree until after I had hit it. So I was only trying to repair my own damage," I explained.

"Well… you didn't only repair your own damage, you also made it grow again, so yes, I should be thanking you! And If you can grow a whole tree, you're definitely ready for the new move! C'mon, let's go to the field!"

"How are you feeling today?" I asked.

"I feel all better. I'm back in fighting and training condition. Now c'mon! I've been waiting these past few days to recover so that I can teach you the best new move ever! And I know you've been waiting too!" He started running off without me.

I laughed, seeing a part of his Eevee side come back to him. _I guess he's in a good mood because I grew his special tree. These powers he showed me are just so awesome. I wonder what I'll be doing with my powers next._


	12. Chapter 12

Maple's POV

Hickory's tail started glowing bright white. "Feel it," he said, walking towards me and moving his tail towards me. I tentatively brought my paw out to touch his glowing tail. It was slightly cold and hard as rock, the complete opposite of its normally warm, fluffy, and flexible state.

"Iron tail doesn't use my natural fire powers. Its power comes from specialized training with a human move tutor. But you're lucky. You don't need to learn iron tail because you have a grass type move that's very similar to iron tail. It's called leaf blade. The specifics for how I turn my tail hard are kind of complicated. But for leaf blade, all you need to do is send your grass energy into your tail and tense your tail straight out. Try it out."

I energized my tail, making it shine bright green, almost white. Then I extended my tail straight out and tensed it as much as I could. Suddenly my tail turned firm, then before I knew it, my energized tail came falling down and struck my hind leg. "Ah!" I cried out, jerking my leg up instinctively as the back of my leg was hit by my now surprisingly sharp tail. My tail turned leaf-like and flexible again as the energy left it.

"Are you okay?" Hickory asked.

"I'm okay, I just didn't know what to expect. I couldn't hold my tail up," I explained.

"Looks like you need to work on tail strength," he decided. "So what did you think of that first leaf blade?"

"I can tell it's going to really useful, but also very dangerous…"

"Don't worry, I'll teach you how to control it perfectly. So far you have the grass energy part of the move covered, now it's time to work on the physical part. What's an energized, firm tail going to do without the ability to move?

"We'll start by practicing tail attacks without the grass energy. I'll teach you the move slam, which is basically where you tense your tail into a hard weapon, then you whack your opponent with it. Normally your tail is smooth and leaf-like, but when you extend and tense it, it can become firm and attack worthy. Same with my tail, normally being warm and fluffy but can turn firm and dangerous once tensed.

"Stretch your tail straight out and tense the muscles in your tail," he instructed.

I extended my tail straight out behind me and kept it there. It felt a little uncomfortable forcing my leaf-like tail into an unnatural position, requiring notable effort. At least I was able to hold it up.

"Okay, now hit me with your tail," he commanded.

"I don't want to hurt you," I said.

"It shouldn't hurt that much," he answered.

"Um, how should I hit you?" I asked, awkwardly wagging my tail around.

"Just spin around and whack me with it," he said casually.

"Uh, okay." I spun around and my broad leaf-like tail slapped him on the side, but I didn't make him budge at all.

"Hmm, okay, maybe you should practice whacking your tail around in the air." He tensed his tail straight out, moved it to the left, then sent it across its range to his right as fast as he could. "Try doing that a few times. Attack as fast as you can."

I did what he did several times. My tail muscles were feeling tired after being tensed over a long period of time.

"Sideways isn't the only way to attack either. You can also attack from top to bottom. Diagonally too, if that's the best way to do damage. Generally you want to avoid your opponent's threatening parts and strike where it would hurt while attacking. Therefore, the natural way to defend is by placing your threatening part, your tail, in the way of your opponent's attacks to protect the rest of your body, where it would hurt to get hit. With just your bare tail it might hurt a little or feel uncomfortable, but when your tail is a leaf blade, it won't hurt when it gets hit. For now we're using only your bare tail, but we'll use leaf blade later on, once your tail is stronger and you have all your tail movements practiced.

"I'll teach you defense first because it's easier and more important in my opinion. Defend by holding your tail opposite from the way I'm attacking." He brought his tail to one side, indicated in which direction he was planning to strike across.

I put my tail in front of his, but he pushed too hard, making me grit my teeth. The impact caused me to untense my tail muscles. His tail shoved past mine and whacked me in the face.

"You can't just place your tail in front of my tail's way, you have to force my tail away! Put some strength into it!" he urged.

I wasn't about to let Hickory get away with slamming me in the face, so I focused more on the task at hand. It didn't take too long to get the hang of it. We used to fool around by trying to hit each other with our tails when we were Eevees, after all. Back then our tails were soft, fluffy, and harmless.

"Now let's pretend my paw has large, sharp claws. Use your tail to defend against me."

I succeeded through the claws and a few other scenarios Hickory thought of.

"Seems like you've got the hang of defending now. Now it's your turn to attack."

I tried attacking one way but he blocked it. I tried a different way but he switched and still blocked. Then I tried attacking one way then quickly switching to a different way, but he still was able to block it all, pushing my tail back every time. I frowned and he grinned at me.

"Defending is a lot easier than attacking," I said.

"That's right. Which is why you should try to be defensive instead of aggressive," he said.

"So how am I going to hit you?" I asked.

"Think of a way," he said. "Something creative."

I tried outspeeding him, but he was way too fast for me. I had to think of something else.

I sat down and thought for a moment, then came up with an idea. I spun my tail around in a wide circle as fast as I could. Hickory couldn't tell which way I was going to attack so he had to hold his tail in any direction. I whipped my tail out of the circular motion towards him, avoiding his tail and striking him in the side.

"Great job!" he complimented. "That was really smart! How about you do it again?"

I started spinning my tail again, but before I could attack, he attacked. I couldn't get my tail in the correct position to defend in time because I had to get out of the spin. His tail sneaked past mine and hit me.

"Aw… My trick won't work after all," I said, disappointed.

"It'll still work, just spend less time spinning to confuse and attack quicker, before your opponent can take the opportunity to attack."

I did it again, but this time Hickory immediately hopped backwards, out of my range. "Don't forget the almighty dodge," he explained. "I'm teaching you how to block with your tail, but ultimately dodging is the better option the majority of the time. You'll have to use your judgement on what to use when."

We spent a few days doing tail training and some mock battles. During that time, some of the pokémon who went out on the campaign were coming back. They had bits of sand all over their fur. Hickory questioned them about what was happening over there, and most said the campaign was not going so good and they were tired, called it quits, and came home.

"I sure hope Falc, Cedar, and Hooves are okay," Hickory said.

"And Spruce…" I added quietly.

"Oh yeah, him too…"

"Well, I'm sure they'll all be fine," I said optimistically. "They're the strongest pokémon in our forest."

"Yeah, you're right," he agreed.

As we walked out to open space to continue training, we spotted a two-legged pokémon with beige and light blue fur. The bits of sand in his fur indicated where he had come from.

"Hi there," said Hickory.

The pokémon turned towards Hickory. "Oh, uh, hi!" he said, waving his hand and grinning cheek to cheek in a rather comical way.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"I was on the campaign but came back with some of the other guys," he said.

"I don't recognize you," I said.

"What's your name?" Hickory asked.

"I'm Squash." He stared at Hickory. "Are you Hickory?" Squash asked after a moment.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Hickory asked.

"You're a guard member," he answered Hickory. "And you are…?" he asked me.

"I'm Maple," I said simply.

"Oh, you're a Leafeon. You must be Spruce's mate," he said, then turned his attention back to Hickory. I felt a bit uncomfortable after being addressed as "Spruce's mate" for some reason.

"How's the campaign going?" Hickory asked, like he did with every other pokémon we saw who came back.

"It's going great!" Squash answered immediately.

"Really? All the other guys who are coming back say it's going poorly," said Hickory.

"If it's going great, why are you back here?" I questioned accusingly.

"Uh… well, I was just tired of it, homesick, ya know? Oh! And I was starving! There's so little food in the other forest because of all them sandstorms. Yeah."

He's a quirky fellow, I thought to myself.

"Help yourself to some berries," said Hickory.

Hey, these are my berries though! ...I mean sure, I would have said the same thing, but still… sometimes I feel like Hickory is too open to strangers.

"Really? Cool!" the Simipour exclaimed, eagerly going up to an Oran berry bush.

"Hey, don't take too many though, these berries are for everyone," I warned.

"I'm gonna take a few for a friend, do you mind?" he asked.

"...Go ahead, I guess," I shrugged.

He grabbed a handful of mostly Iapapa berries and a few others.

"See ya!" the Simipour shouted as he ran off, waving his hand in his signature way.

"Poor guy," Hickory remarked.

"He seemed a little… odd, to me," I said.

"How so?"

"He seemed greedy for my berries," I said. "He also didn't say 'thank you' like any normal Pokémon would. I don't think he's a good Pokémon."

"He's just hungry after being on a long campaign."

"I don't trust that guy," I said bluntly. "Why did he say the campaign was going well when we know it's not?"

"He's probably just trying to stay positive," Hickory answered.

"I don't understand how you can trust and sympathize with strangers right away," I admitted.

"I guess it's a human trainer kind of thing," he said.

I shrugged, forgetting about the quirky Simipour, and we carried on with training.

"Ready to start using leaf blade?" Hickory eventually asked after I was sufficiently good at slam with my tail.

The memory of hitting myself with my own sharp tail came to me. "Um, I don't know…"

Hickory gave me a confused look. "What do you mean? Aren't you excited to learn your most powerful move?"

"I'm afraid of hurting myself…" I mumbled. "Or you…" I added.

"I think I can handle you," he said with a smile. "Don't worry, neither of us will get seriously hurt unless we're really trying to hurt each other."

"But accidents can happen," I said.

"I suppose, but it won't be a big deal," he claimed. "With proper training you can avoid any accidents. C'mon, try using leaf blade now. I'm sure you're strong enough to be able to hold it in place now."

"Alright." I gathered grass energy and sent it all into my tail until it was glowing bright green. It was not hard, and I didn't feel close to running out of power. Next, I extended my tail straight out and tensed all the muscles in my tail. I felt it turn solid and heavier. I was able to hold my tail straight out, unlike a few days ago when I first tried. I moved my leaf blade around, in full control.

"See, there's nothing to be afraid of," Hickory said. I nodded, continuing to get used to the heavier feel. "Your tail is starting to lose energy," Hickory pointed out after a few moments passed by. Taking a look, I saw that it was glowing less brightly. I channeled more energy into it and it turned back into bright green, almost white near the center.

"Do you think you're ready to fight with leaf blade?" he asked.

"I think so," I said.

Hickory turned his tail hard and bright white, then spun around and swung his hard tail at me sideways. I held my tail upright guarding the rest of my body and sent my tail against his. Our tails made a loud clang! as they collided. The impact didn't hurt at all, but it did use up my energy a little.

I was really getting into this leaf blade training now. After I successfully defended against several of Hickory's attacks, I decided to go on the offensive. I tried hitting Hickory, but he guarded well against all my attacks. Attacking felt like an even bigger energy drain than defending, but I was able to keep it up without much difficulty. I alternated between attacking from side to side and from top to bottom for a few cycles, increasing speed, until I broke the pattern and went from top to bottom twice. I finally evaded Hickory's tail and landed a hit.

"Ow!" Hickory cried out, jumping back as my leaf blade struck the yellow fur around his neck and cut downwards.

I gasped, a wave of horror shooting through me. "Hickory, I'm sorry!" I said in a high pitched voice.

"It's no big deal," he said, rubbing the spot where my leaf blade had struck him.

"Does it hurt?" I asked fearfully.

"Not really. Attacks from your grass powers don't hurt as much to me since I'm a fire type, remember?"

"But still, my tail is sharp…"

"Don't worry about it, I've had much worse in my time. You don't want to know. Anyway, let's get back to training."

"I'm not sure I want to… I'm scared of seriously hurting you," I admitted. "I don't think I'm ready for leaf blade."

"The only way to learn how to control leaf blade properly is by practicing it," he said. After I still didn't look approving, he said, "Alright, I have a different idea. How about you practice hitting a tree? It's not a moving target, but it's still a target."

"Okay," I said.

We walked over to the end of the field where the forest started. "Hold on, I don't want to destroy a living tree just to practice," I said.

"Then let's find one that's already dying," he said.

We looked around trying to find one, but all the trees were thriving perfectly in our pleasant forest. We finally found one that was short, not getting sunlight. It was different from the rest of the trees with its dark bark and its needles instead of leaves. The tree was overshadowed by the other trees.

Hickory let out a tiny ember, causing a tiny flame to start licking at the tree's bark. He quickly blew it out. The flame left a mark on the bark. "Try to hit that target," Hickory instructed me.

I turned my tail into leaf blade and spun around. There was a loud cracking sound as my tail collided with the tree's trunk. I was way off from the target. Hickory told me how to aim more accurately then I tried again. After several tries and several dents at various spots on the tree, I hit Hickory's target. He made a new one on another side of the tree. This time it took less tries before I hit the target. By the time we made our way all the way around the tree, I was only missing once before hitting the target.

Observing all the dents in the tree's trunk, on all sides and heights, I felt a little bad for beating up this old tree for training. The tree's needles littered the floor, shaken loose from all the impacts. Hickory's tail glowed white, he spun around, and he smashed the tree at the base. The tree's trunk snapped at the impact point and the tree came falling down.

"Hickory! What was that for?" I exclaimed after the tree hit the ground with a loud clunk.

"Let's practice vertical attacks now," he said casually, as if knocking down a tree was normal.

After I was comfortable enough using leaf blade that I was confident I wouldn't hurt Hickory, we went back to fighting each other. Over the next few days, even more pokémon were coming back from the campaign. Spruce wasn't amongst them. I was starting to get a little worried.

After a long day of training, we headed into the depths of my garden to the Custap berry bush. Before energy ball training, the bush was less than a third of the way until it was fullly grown. Now, thanks to my powers from training, it was just as large as the other berry bushes, with blooming red flowers everywhere. And in the middle, there was one fully matured Custap berry!

"Yes! I finally grew my own Custap berry!" I celebrated.

"Congrats! You achieved your dream!" Hickory complimented.

I went up to the berry and carefully plucked it off of its branch with my tail. It was soft, round, and bright red.

"It's all yours," Hickory said.

"Wait, I think you deserve it," I offered. "You taught me how to increase my grass powers, which allowed me to grow the Custap plant."

"I thought you're crazy for Custap berries! I never thought I would see the day you would turn down a Custap berry!" he joked.

I came up with an idea. "I'll cut it in half for us to share," I said, gently placing the berry on the grass.

"Are you sure you don't just want to eat it? It's perfectly fine with me," he said.

"I want to share it with you," I said.

He smiled at me. "Maple, I love-

He suddenly paused, holding his breath and words in. I raised my eyebrows, confused.

-Custap berries," he spat out, exhaling.

"...Yeah, I know, who doesn't?" I said, looking at him oddly. "Are you alright, Hickory?" I asked, noticing that he looked spooked all of a sudden.

"Uh, I don't know what came over me, but I'm fine now. Anyway, go ahead and cut the berry in half with leaf blade."

"Okay." I used leaf blade and carefully cut the berry in half with the sharp edge. The inside of the berry was light red-orange and looked sweet and delicious. I picked up one half and Hickory took the other half. "I haven't had one of these since I was an Eevee," Hickory said.

"Well enjoy!" I said happily, taking a bite out of my first ever grown Custap berry. The inside was soft and delightfully sweet.

"It's better than I remember," said Hickory. "Must be because you grew it yourself."

"Thanks," I said, smiling at him.

Hickory's POV

As we headed out of the garden after the delicious Custap berry, a Noctowl came flying towards us.

"Are you Hickory?" the Noctowl asked.

"Yes, I am," I said. Seems like a lot of Pokémon know me nowadays, probably from being part of the Guard.

"I have orders from Captain Falcon," he said.

"Slow down. What's your name?" I asked.

"My name is Errol. Captain Falcon designated me as a scout. We know that there are two raiders in our forest right now. Captain Falcon told me to find a Flareon named Hickory and tell him to protect against the two raiders. He said you have to do the night watch," the Noctowl ordered.

"Why the night watch?" I asked.

"Captain Falcon said you're the best one for the job. He designated other pokémon whole came back for watch duty during the day already. You must start tonight."

"Okay, I'll do that," I said. The idea of being the night guard sounded interesting.

"I have other pokémon to give orders to now. See you later." He began to fly off.

"Wait! How is the campaign going?" I asked.

"Not too well," he said, flying off.

"Wait, what do you mean? Hold on, explain!" I called, but the Noctowl didn't turn back.

So I'm the night guard now. I'm doing Spruce's job, protecting the forest in his place. It might be lonely and boring though.

"Hey Maple, do you want to come along with me on the night watch? We can be night guards together!"

"Uh, I-I don't know… What if we actually run into raiders?"

"Then it'll be good for your training," I said.

"I don't think I'm ready to fight them," she responded quietly.

"Sure you are. I'll be right here with you at all times. Nothing bad will happen."

"Well, alright, as long as you're with me," she said, which made me smile.

We hung out at the field until it was dark, having some more berries in order to last through the night. Just as we were going to head out, a Pidgeot came flying low across the field, looking all battered up and spooked.

"Hey there Ariel, you're not looking so good tonight," I said.

"I-I was resting on my perch when suddenly I got attacked by two pokémon for no reason!" she screeched.

"What? Who were they? What species?"

"I-I d-don't know, I couldn't see them! As soon as I got attacked I flew off, scared!"

"How were you attacked?"

"It was… it was electricity and water… it hurt so much… I felt like I was going to collapse out of my tree… I could barely fly away… I can't afford to lose any more of my beautiful feathers!" she squawked hysterically.

"Calm down, you'll be fine. Why don't you have some Oran berries?"

Maple and I brought her to the garden and picked out some berries for her. She calmed down a little, but was still really disoriented.

"Go get some sleep," I suggested.

"W-what if they c-come back?"

"Maple and I are on night watch duty. We'll check by your tree throughout the night to make sure no raiders come near."

"You're the night guard now? Thank goodness! I feel safer already with a night guard watching over the forest," she said, relieved.

Geez, Pokémon are that desperate for a night guard? Now I see the recognition Spruce gets…

Ariel flew off towards her tree, and we followed her on foot.

"I guess there really are raiders here," Maple whispered to me, looking fearful.

"I guess so. But we'll handle them, right?" I asked.

"R-right…"


	13. Chapter 13

Hickory's POV

We were off on our first night watch. I was really glad Maple agreed to come with me. It would be a good experience for her, possibly alleviating some of her fears of The Raiders. Plus, I just wanted to spend all the time I could with my best friend, of course.

Following Ariel, we headed off towards her tree, paying close attention to the surroundings. The forest was unexpectedly scary at night due to the darkness, especially once we entered the trees. I got around the darkness by maintaining a small fire by my muzzle. Along the way, we spotted two kinds of paw prints in some damp dirt. One kind had sharp claws making a wicked looking imprint. The other kind belonged to a two legged pokémon based on the way they were spaced apart.

"I sure wish Falc was here to protect me when I need it most... You'll come by to check here often, won't you?" Ariel asked, making sure.

"We sure will," I confirmed. Maple nodded.

"Thank you so much," she said, flying off to a high perch.

We started our patrol in the surrounding area of Ariel's tree. After that, we moved on to patrol a different part of the forest. Before moving on to a new area, we checked back around Ariel's tree. We continued to repeatedly return to Ariel's tree since it was a likely target. _I wish I knew what species the raiders were,_ I thought as we searched, not knowing who we were looking for.

I was eventually tired of having to keep a constant fire going for light. Maple tried creating a small energy ball in front of her muzzle. It wasn't as bright as my fire, but it was good enough. It also made the surrounding area glow green, which I thought was really cool. With nothing much to look at in the dark night, I found myself looking at her mostly; the green glow really illuminated her features. She got tired of keeping the energy ball up though, but she had it for long enough that I was ready to use my fire again. I wondered how Spruce maintained visibility and asked Maple about it. She said he had nocturnal vision like a Noctowl, which I guess made sense for a dark type.

We didn't encounter anything out of the ordinary that night. I was completely out of it by the time I got to my den. Going a whole day and night without sleep sounds fun, but it's really not. At least that only has to happen once, on the first day of night watch duty. As soon as I got to my leaf bed, I curled up and passed out.

I had a dream where I was trying to protect Maple from raiders but I failed. Then Spruce came in and defeated them. Maple said she was disappointed in me for not being able to protect her and left me there to faint. I felt so horrible. Just when I was about to faint...

"Heehee!" I felt something soft tickling my side. It felt like a leaf.

"Wake up, Hickory!" I heard a familiar sweet voice say. I opened my eyes. Although it was rather dark, I could make out the familiar face of my friend looking down at me.

"Maple!" I exclaimed happily, relieved.

"Hey Hickory. You looked a little distressed a moment ago. The night without sleep really got to you, huh?"

"Yeah, and... I had a bad dream. But I'm fine now, don't worry," I said, going back to smiling.

"Would you like to tell me about it? I'll listen," she offered.

"Uh, I just lost a battle with a few raiders, that's all," I said quickly.

"Oh…" she whispered, looking a little scared herself.

 _Oh no, now I've got her worried…_ I thought.

"Well, it was just a dream," she said.

"Exactly, it was just a dream. That'll never happen in real life," I said confidently.

"You're right. And… I'll be here to help you in case. Well, I'll try my best…"

"That's what I needed to hear," I said.

"Let's start the night watch," she said.

"What? We don't need to start until it's dark," I said.

"But it's already dark," she informed me. "I came to meet you in the evening but you were still fast asleep. I thought you would be up by the time it was dark, but nope, you were still out cold. I had to wake you up."

I looked past her and saw that the sky was already black with little dabs of white. "Fine, I'll get up," I said.

We headed out of my den and into the dark forest, Maple in front and me behind, smiling. _Stupid dream, I don't need to protect Maple from all the raiders, we can fight together. And Maple would never hate me._

We started off by going to the field for berries to eat. Then we went to Ariel's tree. Using the light from my iron tail, I could spot a tiny bit of beige wing between the leaves. Our patrol continued to another area, then back to Ariel's tree. I still had a feeling she would continue to be targeted.

We were walking through the forest slowly when suddenly we heard frantic movements some distance behind us. I whirled around and tapped Maple with my tail, indicating the direction of the sound. I started advancing in that direction. Maple wasn't following me. I glanced behind me and saw, using the green light coming from her tail, that she looked a little scared. I beckoned her to follow and she came with me.

The movements didn't stop. The owner of the movements were just out of range of the light from my tail. As I continued forward, I saw that there was a large clump of bushes. A moment later, the pokémon came around the side of the bushes and into my vision. "Hi Hickory!" said Squash, waving that signature wave and smile.

I breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that it wasn't a raider. "Hey Squash," I said.

"What're you doing out here at this hour?" he asked.

"There are some raiders in the forest. Maple and I are doing the night watch," I explained.

"What're _you_ doing out here at this hour?" Maple asked back.

"Eh, I couldn't sleep," he shrugged. "Man, it sure is hard to navigate the forest at night. It reminds me of the campaign. Hickory, wanna hear about my adventures on the campaign?"

"Sure."

He started talking about some stuff he did. I listened attentively as he rambled on and on. Some things I didn't think were true, but I stuck it through anyway to be polite.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we have to be going now," Maple interrupted as Squash started to talk about a new part.

"Oh, but I haven't gotten to the best part yet!" Squash said, then continued on.

 _We really do need to get moving, but I don't want to be rude…_ I thought, not paying attention to what Squash was saying anymore.

"We _really_ have to get going now," Maple interrupted, putting voice to my thoughts. "C'mon Hickory, let's keep moving," she said quickly, walking off fast.

"But I still have so much to talk about!" Squash called as the two of us sped off.

"I didn't want to be rude," I said to Maple.

"I just wanted to get away from that annoying Simipour," she admitted. "Didn't you get the feeling he was making all that stuff up? I have a bad feeling about him," she explained.

"Well, it's about time we check on Ariel's tree anyway. I guess I was listening for way too long. That was a serious delay. Sorry."

We quickly headed back to Ariel's tree. While navigating the forest, I suddenly heard a very faint distressed sound. As we approached Ariel's tree...

Maple's POV

...Hickory suddenly ran off. "Where are you going?" I called, then I ran after him. As I got closer, I saw what had caught Hickory's attention. It was a Luxray, and he looked evil. There were two things illuminated by electricity in the night: the Luxray, and his target. The electricity gleamed bright yellow in the middle of the dark night, shooting off of its creator's jagged figure and encompassing its target - a poor, grounded bird pokémon.

I felt myself slow down and eventually come to a stop, Hickory still running in front of me. I wanted to stay as far away from that Luxray as possible no matter what.

I watched as Hickory unleashed a streak of fire at the Luxray. Part of me said I was supposed to help him, but the better of me, out of fear, refused to act.

 _You HAVE to help Hickory!_

The Luxray charged at Hickory. Hickory dodged by going to the side in the last moment then landed a direct flamethrower from behind.

 _He's doing perfectly fine on his own…_

The Luxray charged his body up with electricity then ran at Hickory again. Hickory wasn't able to dodge in time and was hit, a crackling electric sound ringing out in the silent night.

 _You're going to stand back and watch Hickory fight? What was all that training for?_

"You again. You and me, we're tied now. You beat me in the field, I beat you in the forest. This is the tiebreaker," I heard the Luxray say to Hickory.

"What are you here for?!" Hickory demanded.

 _Hickory's got the situation under control..._

Hickory and the Luxray both used their ranged energy attacks. The attacks collided and exploded near the middle, causing the area to light up.

 _You still have a chance to help Hickory, to prove yourself!_

I took a step towards the battle. Because of the light, the Luxray spotted and stared at me, a malicious glint in his eyes and a tiny smirk appearing on his snout. I heard myself let out a small squeak then retreated back into the bushes, holding my breath.

The Luxray ended his electric attack, dodged Hickory's flames with a quick jump to the right, and started running at Hickory, his body still charged and glowing yellow with electricity. Hickory stared the Luxray down, then at the last moment rolled onto his back, caught the Luxray in the stomach with his four paws, and flung the Luxray forward over his head and into the ground.

The Luxray growled, disgruntled, a heap on the ground. Unfortunately, Hickory got shocked by the electricity that surrounded the Luxray's body and was also on the ground fazed.

 _Now's the perfect time to help!_

After several moments of mental debate, I tried to approach the battlefield for a second time. Both the Luxray and Hickory were already getting up. The Luxray suddenly ran off, and Hickory pursued him at top speed. I tentatively inched out of the bushes and into the open. Ariel the Pidgeot was on the ground with her wings covering her face. Several feathers were burnt to a crisp from the electric attacks. She was trembling faintly. Despite my own fears of the Raiders, I managed to compose myself in order to appear confident in front of the unfortunate victim.

"Ariel? It's me, Maple," I said, gently placing my paw on her wing. "Hickory has fought that Luxray away. It should be safe now."

"I-I j-just… w-why do they have to attack m-me…?" she whispered.

"I don't know…" was all I could say.

"I've had enough of this forest!" she suddenly screeched. "As soon as I can fly, I'm leaving!"

"...Well, if you feel it's necessary," I said, although I was quite surprised. "You're not going to say goodbye to Captain Falcon?" I asked.

"No! In fact, I hate that guy! It's his fault I got attacked, so it's his fault I'm leaving!"

Hickory came dashing back into the area. "I chased him off, are you okay, Ariel?" Hickory asked.

"No! I'm not okay! You were supposed to protect me, Hickory!" Ariel squawked at him. "Were you even coming by to check my tree?!"

"Yes, we were coming back to check your tree all night long. We just got distracted on the way here for a little bit. I promise we were guarding you," I explained.

"Well you obviously weren't guarding me enough," she huffed. "As soon as I can leave, I'm leaving to some other place where I'll always be protected. And not by lousy guards like you two and Falc!" Ariel flew off into her tree angrily, struggling on the way up, leaving Hickory and me alone.

"Hmph, some protection she deserves," Hickory said angrily.

"She said Captain Falcon promised to protect her, and he wasn't here to protect her now," I said. "But I agree, she shouldn't be rude like that."

After a moment of silence, Hickory asked, "Maple, why didn't you fight the raider with me?"

A wave of shame and cowardice washed over me. "I-I… I guess I was scared…" I admitted. "I was a coward," I said, looking away from him.

Hickory placed his paw on my shoulder comfortingly. "It was only our first encounter. It's okay."

"It's not okay," I said. "You spent the time and effort to teach me how to fight, and when it's time to fight, I blew you off and hid in the bushes being a coward. All our training went to waste."

"Whoa, hold on there. This was only one time. All our training is certainly not wasted. And regardless of whether you ever fight a raider or not, training with you was not a waste of time or effort at all. I enjoyed all the time we spent together because I… really care about you."

His words really made me feel better. "Thanks, Hickory, you're the best. I promise I will fight with you next time," I said sincerely.

"I know you'll do it, but if not, it's still okay. Whenever you're ready to fight you can fight. I will never force you to. I invited you on night watch with me because I thought it would be helpful and enjoyable. If you feel too uncomfortable doing night watches, I won't force you to."

I thought about it for a little. "I am scared, a little, but you're right, I need to get over my fears. Plus, I don't want you to be lonely," I said. In truth, it was also because I knew very well from Spruce that we wouldn't see each other until after his night watches were over because he needed to sleep during the day. I didn't want to not see him for that whole time.

The next day, I woke up in the late afternoon. Hickory said he would meet me at my den today, so I lied in bed waiting for him. I trusted that he would wake up in a timely manner, unlike the previous night. However, my trust in him started to wane as time passed by and the sun dipped lower. Just after I sighed in exasperation of Hickory's lateness, I heard footsteps approaching my den. The footsteps stopped outside to the left, just outside of my vision.

"Hickory?" I called, standing up.

"Nope. It's just me," said an unfamiliar voice. I immediately felt very uneasy. There was a moment of silence, then a Luxray emerged from the side of the den into the entrance.

I had a sharp intake of breath and started sweating when I saw the Luxray up close. His midnight blue fur formed threatening looking spikes. He looked like he was about twice as large as me. I knew who he was within a second.

"W-what are y-you d-doing h-here…?" I squeaked pitifully, unable to stop myself from stuttering.

"I'm here for you," the Luxray said in a low voice, glaring at me.

It took a moment for the statement to sink in. "W-why m-m-me…?" I stammered, fear coursing through me.

"Because you're the mate of that despicable Umbreon, Spruce," he spat. "I hate Spruce and the rest of his gang. They killed my best friend! Why do you love Spruce? He does not deserve anyone's love."

My ears and tail drooped down as I realized, _Because he protects me… but he's not here to protect me now…_

"I can't beat Spruce in a battle, so how can I hurt him? It's simple, really. I'll hurt his mate instead." A wicked grin appeared on the Luxray's muzzle. "You're such a beautiful and delicate creature… I'm gonna enjoy this," the Luxray remarked, taking a large step towards me.

"S-stay away!" I shrieked, my voice coming out high pitched.

"Heh, heh, heh," he laughed evilly.

The reality of the situation was quickly sinking in, and fear was threatening to consume me, just like last night, but Hickory's words to me surfaced and suppressed my fears, at least for now. _I won't let him do anything to me!_ I determined, giving the aggressor a hard stare.

"Leave me alone!" I yelled. In spite of the figure of pure evil approaching me, and the uneasing smell of Iapapa berries from his breath, I willed myself to create and gather energy in front of me. I formed a bright green energy ball and fired it. Unfortunately, my aim was shaky due to the fearful emotions bottled up in me and the Luxray easily dodged the attack with a smirk.

I sent grass energy into my tail and tensed it. As he got close to me, I spun around. My leaf blade made contact with his extended claw, seemingly not affecting him very much. The response was that he growled and swung his other claw at me. I ducked and shuffled backwards, starting to feel shaky. "You're a feisty female, aren't you? You'll make my job that much more fun," he said evilly. A chill went down my spine. My confidence broken, I scurried backwards, shaking with fear, then suddenly realized I was up against the back wall of the den and couldn't retreat anymore. The Luxray soon towered over me, a beast having caught its prey. I instinctively curled up into a ball, whimpering softly.

The Luxray's dark blue fur puffed up and outward and his entire body started glowing yellow. Less than a second later, electric shocks entered my body. I cried out from the electric energy ravaging me, shutting my eyes tightly. Hickory said I'm resistant to electric attacks, yet it still hurt so much. I can't imagine what he feels when he gets hit by the Luxray's electricity.

 _Was my fur burning from the electricity?!_ I cried out in my mind, panicking desperately, as a wave of heat washed over electric attack promptly stopped, leaving me feeling like I had sunburn all over the place, my limbs twitching slightly.

Nothing happened to me for the next few moments. I slowly, painfully, opened my eyes. At first all I could see was the midnight blue, spiky pelt of the Luxray. Then I realized he was engulfed with not his own electricity, but with red hot fire. As the evil Luxray lurched out of the way, I saw the familiar, shining orange and golden-like pelt of a Flareon standing in the glorious light of the setting sun coming from the entrance of the den.

Hickory frowned angrily as he had to stop his flamethrower attack after sustaining it for too long, giving the Luxray a chance to inch over in front of me, obscuring my view of Hickory, and retaliate with a thunderbolt. Hickory avoided the bright yellow streak of dangerous energy - I couldn't tell how since the Luxray was in the way - and shot back another flamethrower. I could see the upward curl of a grin on the side of the Luxray's face as he quickly hopped out of the way, the streak of fire grazing a spike of his midnight-blue fur. I suddenly and instinctively shrieked when I realized where the fire was headed - towards me.

I sprang out of my curled up position on the ground as fast as I possibly could and leaped to the side to avoid the flames. One look towards Hickory told me how horrified he was. _It's okay, I'm fine,_ I wanted to tell him desperately.

The Luxray's fangs glowed white and grew to an enormous size as the Luxray charged towards Hickory, growling intimidatingly. Hickory, snapping back into action, brought his equally as bright white tail towards the Luxray, who crunched down on Hickory's tail as hard as he could. Hickory tried to send the Luxray lurching back with a swing of his tail, but wasn't strong enough to do it. The Luxray charged up electricity, the electricity entering Hickory through his tail. Hickory gritted his teeth then unleashed some more fire out of his muzzle, directed at the attacking Luxray. Both of them retreated a few steps from each other.

 _You have to help him now! It's about time to attack!_

I stood up and started an energy ball, but the Luxray must've caught me out of the corner of his eye, because before I could finish, he glared and growled at me threateningly. I let out a high pitched squeak of surprise and fear, which caused my partially formed energy ball to blow up. _I can't fight, he's too frightening..._

While the Luxray was looking at me, Hickory took the opportunity to recklessly charge towards the Luxray, a very enraged expression on his face, but the Luxray landed a direct hit on Hickory with his electricity. Hickory cried out from the intense energy, but still continued to advance towards the Luxray, his tail lightening up, but slower. Taking the opportunity, the Luxray sprang off of his hind legs and fled the den. Hickory followed him out of the den and shot fire out towards the Luxray but missed. Rather than pursue the enemy, he came back into the den.

We were both breathing heavily, him from the fighting, me from... fear... "There's nothing to be afraid of. He's gone now," Hickory said in a confident voice.

"Th-thank y-you," I whispered, sitting down, my voice still coming out uneven. My legs were trembling and my eyes were wide.

Hickory sat down next to me, let me rest on him, and curled his tail around me, stroking me softly with it. His fur was very warm, soft, and comforting.

"Calm down, I'm here for you."

I nodded and took a few deep breaths. He smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile back. I didn't know how long we sat there together, how long it took me to calm down. "He wanted to hurt me because he hates Spruce," I explained once I was calm enough to speak clearly.

"I don't understand…" Hickory said after a moment of thought.

"He was going to hurt Spruce by hurting his mate, me…"

There was a pause as Hickory figured out what I meant. "Oh… I see now. Sorry, I kinda forgot you were Spruce's mate."

"Hickory… I can't imagine what would've happened to me if it weren't for you…"

"I don't want to think about it either."

"I tried protecting myself, but… I couldn't…"

"What do you mean?"

"My attacks barely did anything to him…"

"...You were scared, weren't you?" he said.

"Yes, very…"

"You won't be able to battle properly if you let your fears take over and inhibit you," he said.

"You'll stay by me all the time, right?" I asked, looking into his eyes.

He looked for a moment, but then looked away, as if hiding something. He didn't speak for a little bit, thinking to himself. "As much as I'd like to protect you, you won't be able to overcome your fears if you rely on me," he eventually said. "I'm here right now, but as your friend, not your guardian. I'm not… I'm not Spruce, understand? I'm going to need you to fight with me. What use was there in learning how to fight if you don't actually fight when you have to?"

There was a moment of silence. I didn't really know what to say or do, other than look down shamefully. I stared at his warm, cream colored tail for a while until I finally confessed, "I-I c-can't d-do it… Every time I try to fight, that L-Luxray scares me out of it..." I started to feel tears come to my eyes.

"C'mon Maple, you weren't like this when we were kids, what's gotten into you?" he asked softly, trying to comfort me with his warm tail again. "It's only because of the raiders, right?" he offered the answer quietly. I nodded ever so slightly.

"Don't worry, I won't let any raiders hurt you badly," he promised. "But I also need you to prevent any raiders from hurting me badly. That Luxray got a lot stronger after evolving; I could feel it in his thunderbolt. I'll… I'll admit that I can't fight him alone," he said quietly. "I need you to help me. You'll probably get hurt some in the process, but you must face your fears and be strong with me. Can you do that for me?" he asked, leaning down to look at me face to face.

I turned to look into the eyes of my old friend and knew that I just had to try at least one more time. I nodded. "Yes, I can," I said, strongly, powerfully.

"Good," he said with a big smile, standing up, his soft tail brushing up against me.

The feelings of fear and weakness melted away after Hickory's words. "You really cheered me up," I told him.

"What're friends for?" he said happily. "Now, ready to be night guards together?"

Together we strolled out of the den and into the by now almost completely dark night.


	14. Chapter 14

Hickory's POV

I don't know how long I was with Maple, comforting her. I'll admit I was a little disappointed that she was this scared; I thought she'd be stronger than this. Not that I'm objecting to being here, of course.

When we left the den to start the night watch, it was completely pitch black because it was cloudy. A little light from my muzzle did the trick though. Maple stayed close to me. Of course I wanted her close to me, but I didn't want her to feel scared. There was really nothing to be scared of. Sure, the Luxray was strong, but we were in this together. And at least the Luxray didn't have any accomplices.

 _What would make the Luxray hate Spruce so much that he would attack his mate?_ I wondered. "Do you know if Spruce and the Luxray have had any sort of history with each other?" I asked Maple.

"Not that I know of, why?"

"I'm trying to think of some sort of reason why the Luxray would hate Spruce so much that he would, um... attack you."

Maple suddenly stopped walking. "I just remembered something he said," she said. I stopped walking and looked at her; she liked distressed. "The Luxray did mention why he hates Spruce. He said Spruce and Spruce's friends killed his friend!"

 _Hmm… that would certainly be a valid reason..._

"I didn't think about it when he said it, since I was scared, but now that I think about it… it-it can't be true, can it?" she wondered, her voice wavering. "Spruce never killed anyone, I-I think…"

"Falc and the others never mentioned killing anyone either," I said. "I guess I'll ask them about it when they get back."

"We obviously can't trust the Luxray," Maple said immediately. "He might be lying."

Our conversation got an interruption in the form of a certain goofy Simipour signaling to us. Squash came sprinting towards us, looking overly panicked. "Hickory! I saw the Luxray raider! Come with me quick!" he yelled frantically. He beckoned me to follow with a wave of his hand and started running off in the direction he came from without waiting for a response. He glanced back to check if I was following him. It took me a moment to process what the was saying. "You need to go, now!" he shouted desperately.

"C'mon Maple, let's go defeat that Luxray together," I said, running off after the Simipour. Being faster, I quickly caught up with the bipedal water type.

"I saw the Luxray attacking an innocent pokémon," Squash told me. "I ran off to find you right away."

"Good thing you were able to find me," I said. "How'd you know where to look?"

"Uh… lucky guess, I guess," he answered.

As I followed Squash, I realized Maple wasn't following. "Hold on, let me wait for my friend to come with us," I told him.

"There's no time to wait!" Squash exclaimed, waving his hands in the air hysterically.

I sighed and continued running off. "I can't defeat the Luxray one-on-one. I was hoping my friend Maple would help me, but she appears to not be following. Can you help me?" I asked Squash.

"I don't know about that. I'm no fighter," he responded immediately.

"But weren't you on the campaign?" I brought up.

"Oh! Yeah… but I'm super duper weak to the Luxray's electric attack! You can't make me fight him!"

"Fine," I huffed, disappointed.

We continued running through the forest for some time, until Squash started slowing down. "I… I'm too tired to go on…" he panted.

"C'mon… at least lead me to the Luxray," I demanded angrily, annoyed.

"Just keep going straight ahead and you'll find him," Squash instructed as he slowed to a jog and then a stop. "I know you'll find him!"

I looked back to see Squash bent over, resting against a tree, exhausted. "Enjoy!" he called.

 _Enjoy? That's a weird thing to say… Whatever._ By now I was starting to question the Simipour's sanity, but I put that aside for later. Squash said there was a pokémon in trouble and I had to go straight ahead.

Now that I was prepared to fight the Luxray one-on-one, I used my natural fire energy to power up my legs, enabling me to run towards the Luxray faster without losing my breath as quickly. Fires sprouted out around my body, mostly around my legs. The move, called flame charge, was a pretty large energy drain, but I figured I would need the speed in order to dodge the Luxray's attacks. Being able to light up the area around me without having to use my mouth was an added perk, since I needed to breathe in more air while running.

Squash's directions were right; I encountered the Luxray in a small clearing a short distance ahead. "Hey you! Let's have a talk," I said.

He fired a thunderbolt at me. The attack came at me fast, but using my speed from flame charge, I was able to dodge the powerful electric streak and slam into the Luxray with my flame-cloaked body, directing my shoulder into his side. Continuing off of my upper paw, I shot out a flamethrower, which made contact with the target before he could react. The Luxray let out an ear piercing snarl. Confident in a quick victory, I decided to finish him off with a fire blast and began building it up. The Luxray got up faster than I had thought he would though. He broke up my fire blast with a thunderbolt, causing an explosion of light and sound.

It vaguely crossed my mind that the Luxray wasn't attacking some other pokémon; he seemed to be waiting for me. But I willed myself to focus on the battle alone. I've found that out here in the forest everytime I try to stop fighting to question motives I always end up getting in trouble, unlike in the human world where people try to settle things with words first and pokémon battles second.

The Luxray charged through the dust from the explosion, his body surrounded in electricity; I recognized the electrified tackle as a move called spark. I used iron tail and spun around as he approached, but my attack missed. The next moment, I was thrown through the air, electricity crackling within me painfully. I managed to shift my body weight and just barely land on my paws. A thunderbolt was already coming towards me, but the energy from flame charge gave me the speed I needed to avoid the attack at the last second. The next thing the Luxray did was use discharge, sending smaller bolts of lightning all over. I got hit by a bolt and was hurt and stunned. _C'mon Hickory, you've fought tougher opponents than this guy! You're much better than him!_ I told myself.

Right after the discharge, the Luxray charged at me, elongated fangs bared for crunch. Without enough time for a fire attack, I rolled onto my back and caught the Luxray by the stomach. In the moment before I flung him over my head though, he chomped down on one of my legs, and his fangs scraped against my leg as I threw him over me. I cried out, feeling great pain in my leg. At least he got a mouthful of fire because my leg was still burning from the active flame charge.

I sized up the state of my opponent. He had burn marks all over his fur, although it was hard to tell due to his already dark colored fur. Only a fire type like me who's seen a lot of the burns my own fire has done would be able to quickly recognize the burns on the dark-furred Luxray. Based off of the sparks coming out of his body, he was still enraged, but didn't have much strength or energy left. _I'm not in such good shape either… One more direct hit and I might-_

"Auuuugh!" I felt like I got hit from behind by one of those human moving thingies and I felt a dreadful sensation of drowning. The flames around my legs from flame charge were instantly doused by the sudden hydro pump that hit me out of nowhere. The force of the attack knocked me down and sent me skidding across the ground a few feet, leaving me sprawled out on the ground. With all my fires extinguished, the area was pitch black. I couldn't tell who had attacked me.

"Glad you could _finally_ make it," the Luxray snarled.

"I _told_ you I would make a grand entrance, Splint," said the voice who had led me to this fight.

 _Squash? No, my ears must be messed up from the hydro pump._ I tried looking towards the source of the voice, but it was too dark to see.

"I don't understand why you couldn't just defeat him the moment you met him," the Luxray criticized.

My muscles ached and I couldn't create any more fire. I stayed down low, trying not to attract any attention. _I might be able to escape due to the darkness,_ I figured.

"His Leafeon mate was always by him," Squash argued. "I can't take on a grass type!"

 _He was afraid of Maple? That's good to hear,_ I thought.

"Yeah, but she's a female! You're telling me you were scared of a female?" the Luxray accused Squash mockingly.

A wave of anger arose within me. _This guy is really getting on my nerves. He's even worse than Spruce!_

"And she's Spruce's mate, you idiot. You do remember who Spruce is, right?

"Nope!"

"He's an Umbreon, and he's part of the gang that killed my friend, Spine the Persian!"

My eyes widened from what I heard. _He's said it again, and this time it's to his own teammate. I've been searching for an answer, and now I've got one. But can I really believe that my friends killed someone?_

"Don't be calling your partner an idiot, Splint," Squash chided. "If it weren't for me, you would have lost to Hickory. You should be grateful for having me here," Squash said in a mocking voice.

 _How could Squash be a raider?! There's gotta be some mistake. He didn't seem like a raider at all! He's too friendly and goofy to be a raider!_ I couldn't believe someone who was so friendly could back-douse me like that.

"For your information, I was going to win anyway. I didn't need your help," the Luxray shot back.

I slowly started crawling away from the two raiders while they argued. My muscles protested, but I gritted my teeth through the pain. My legs didn't want to move at all after being electrocuted and soaked, especially the one that got crunched.

"Of course you need my help. You'd still be wandering around this forest like a lost little Shinx without me."

By now I had crawled far enough away that I decided to start standing up to run away. My legs protested against having to carry the rest of my weight and I struggled to keep my breathing quiet.

"Do you want to fight me?!" the Luxray outbursted angrily. He emitted several large sparks out of his body, which caused the area to light up.

The next thing I knew, I was spotted and a jet of water was flying at me. My eyes widened; I lacked the strength to dodge. "Ahhhh!" I cried out, unable to contain my cry, the water knocking me to the ground and making me feel numb on the inside. I struggled to breathe with all the water. I ended up on my side, unable to move, trying desperately not to faint.

The Luxray approached me, electricity live on his fur for light. "Where do you think you're going?" he snarled, in an even eviler tone than normal, the electricity building up in his fur and his fangs elongating and glowing white for crunch.

A chill went down my neck and spine as I stared back at him helplessly. _There's no way to escape, I'm done for…_ I thought, a dreadful terror spreading through me.

But then I saw a flash of bright green.

Maple's POV

"C'mon Maple, let's go defeat that Luxray together," said Hickory.

 _We're going to fight him already?_ The terrifying image of that frightening Luxray with his spiky midnight-blue fur and the painful feeling of the electric attack ravaging me cluttered and dominated my thoughts. Before I realized I should answer Hickory, he had already run off with the Simipour.

I stood there for a moment watching Hickory run off. _I promised Hickory that I would help him fight, I can't let him run off without me!_ With his words overcoming my fears of the Luxray, I ran off after him.

It was hard to follow Hickory in the darkness. I tried to use my ears to locate him based on the sound of his paws rocketing off the ground, but eventually he got so far ahead I couldn't hear him anymore. I felt panic start to rise within me now that I was alone in the forest in the middle of the night with at least one raider in the forest. There wasn't even any light from the moon or stars because it was cloudy. _Calm down and just keep going in the same direction,_ I told myself. I felt a wave of relief when a burst of light appeared up ahead in the distance. I could tell it was Hickory using some sort of fire move.

"Hickory!" I called out, but he was too far ahead and didn't hear me. To make matters worse, he was somehow speeding away from me even faster than before. I could tell by the fading blip of light that he was getting farther and farther away. Meanwhile, I myself was slowing down, getting tired. I had to slow my pace down to a jog, otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep running, period. _C'mon Maple, don't give up! You need to help Hickory!_ I repeated in my mind again and again.

I soon saw the kind of light that comes from fire out in the distance. I picked up the pace. Then I saw yellow light. _Yellow light can only mean one thing…_ I thought, going back into a full speed sprint. As I approached the battle, the fire light went out. _Maybe Hickory scared off the Luxray,_ I hoped. _That's probably what happened._ I could faintly hear voices but couldn't make out what was being said or who was speaking. There were no signs or sounds of battle anymore. I slowed down and cautiously approached the area.

Peeking through the bushes, I witnessed the opposite of what I was hoping to see. Hickory was trying to escape, but got knocked over by a huge volume of water. "Ahhhh!" Hickory cried out, the sound of his voice piercing my ears despite being muffled by the deadly water.

 _No! Hickory…_ I cried out in my mind, my eyes wide. _I knew that Simipour was no good!_ I thought, spotting the owner of the water attack. The Luxray started to slowly approach the fallen Flareon, a malicious glint in his eye directed at my dear friend. _I… I can't let anything worse happen to him!_

In a quick decision to act, I leaped out of the bushes, created a large energy ball, and fired it at the Luxray, the orb causing the dark area to glow green. My attack hit its target perfectly, exploding at the Luxray's side, releasing a burst of light and knocking him to the ground.

I started up my leaf blade, causing the area to glow green again. As I ran towards the Luxray, he got up, but didn't face me. I quickly realized who he was aiming for - Hickory. Changing direction, I ran over and placed myself in front of Hickory, between him and the Luxray, just as the Luxray shot a wicked bolt of electricity in our direction. My first instinct was to avoid that thunderbolt at all costs, but I knew that Hickory would get hit instead and I couldn't let that happen. My next instinct was to protect myself with my leaf blade tail like Hickory had taught me, even though that was for protection from physical attacks. Nothing better came to my mind in the second I had before the thunderbolt reached me, so I turned around and put my leaf bladed tail in front of me.

To my surprise, the thunderbolt bounced off my green energized tail and went whizzing off in another direction. The green light from my tail and the yellow light from the thunderbolt allowed me to spot the Simipour, Squash, advancing towards me from the left. After noticing the thunderbolt was reflecting off of the broad side of my tail in the same direction, I tried tilting the broad side of my tail more to the left. To my surprise and satisfaction, the thunderbolt reflected off my energized tail and straight into the Simipour!

"Augh!" Squash cried out horrifically. Hickory had told me that so-called "water-types" like Squash were weak to electric attacks.

 _I finally hurt that annoying, no-good, traitorous Simipour!_ I celebrated proudly, a grin forming on my face.

The thunderbolt stopped coming once the Luxray realized he was only electrocuting his own accomplice. The Simipour collapsed on the ground and stayed down there. _I won't have to deal with that fool anymore,_ I remarked happily.

After I ended my leaf blade, it was pitch black; there wasn't even any light from the moon or stars because it was cloudy. I tried listening and smelling but I couldn't locate the Luxray without some sort of light. The darkness and silence made me feel scared; the back of my neck felt cold.

Suddenly a burst of yellow light made me jump. The Luxray powered up his electricity then released a whole bunch of smaller bolts in every direction. I swiftly dodged one of the bolts coming to me by hopping to the right, but a sharp, painful sensation on my right side, which made me wince, indicated that I had jumped right into another bolt of electricity. At least it didn't hurt too much since it was small. I gathered by grass energy in front of me and fired an energy ball at the Luxray. It powered straight through one of his lightning bolts, but hit the ground in front of him. The Luxray stopped his attack and it was pitch black again.

Several moments passed by in which no one made a sound. I was once again scared of what might happen next. I instinctively wanted to breathe quickly to get more air, but I forced myself not to make a sound. If I used one of my attacks, the light would reveal my position while I wouldn't know the Luxray's position. _I sure hope he's exhausted by now… he can't possibly still be able to fight after fighting Hickory already and now me… he's not that strong… right?_

I came up with an idea - I'll get him to come to me on purpose. I sent energy into my tail and tensed it for leaf blade, lighting up the area with a green glow. I saw the Luxray immediately leap towards me and come dashing at me after spotting my light; he was closer to me than I thought. At the last second, I rolled over onto my back, caught the Luxray by the stomach with my four paws, and flung him over my head and into the ground. The Luxray whimpered when he hit the ground.

Quickly locating Hickory behind me using the green glow from my tail, I got up and went over to his side.

"Are you alright, Hickory?" I asked, offering a paw to help him up.

"Uh... kinda," he said shakily as he stood up. His fur was disheveled and one of his legs looked quite bad.

I heard some movement from the Luxray and tried to find him using the green light from my tail. "I know you can defeat him," Hickory told me.

His words truly made me feel stronger. "I'll take care of this guy, don't worry," I promised.

Yellow light appeared. I turned my head to see the oncoming thunderbolt. I didn't want to dodge in case Hickory wasn't able to dodge, so I blocked the attack with my tail again. The thunderbolt hit my tail straight on and split, several smaller bolts flying off in different directions. I soon found it hard to keep up my leaf blade though. The thunderbolt didn't hurt against my tail, but I had to keep pouring grass energy into my tail in order to keep up the defense.

Finally the Luxray stopped the thunderbolt. Now he came charging at me with his elongated fangs bared. I was really tired now, but I forced out all my energy into my tail to keep up the leaf blade and blocked the Luxray's fangs with it. The Luxray crunched down on my leaf blade tail hard. It didn't hurt as long as my tail stayed leaf bladed, but I knew that if I couldn't keep up the energy my tail would turn back into a tail and it would hurt more than I wanted to even imagine. I felt a little bit of panic start to rise.

Luckily, the sudden light to my right indicated that Hickory let out some fire at the Luxray's side, causing the Luxray to jump and let go of my tail. I was concerned by how weak Hickory's flamethrower attack was. Needing to finish this fight, I swung my tail around as hard as I could and struck the Luxray with the sharp end at the spot where Hickory's small fire had made contact. The Luxray howled in pain as he was thrown through the air from the force of my leaf blade and hit the ground.

I ended my leaf blade, breathing heavily, totally out of breath and energy. It was once again pitch black. I couldn't hear anything besides my own breathing and Hickory's until I heard pawsteps. To my relief, the pawsteps were going away from us. "I'll… be back… for you, Maple! You can count on it!" the Luxray threatened me as he staggered off.

My knees buckled and I collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. "Maple!" Hickory exclaimed.

"I'm alright, just… tired…" I said, looking at him through the dark night. He created a tiny flame out of his muzzle in order to look at me. I sat up to show that I was fine.

"Hey, you were amazing," he complimented, sitting down beside me. I smiled widely at his praise. "I knew I could count on you. Thank you so much for protecting me." I was just about to say, "You're welcome," when suddenly I felt Hickory's warm cheek brush against mine. Without thinking, I instinctively nuzzled him back.

The blissful feeling lasted a tiny moment before Hickory pulled away from me just as fast as he had approached and looked away. Good thing it was near pitch black, because both my cheeks were steaming hot, and it wasn't because Hickory was a fire type. We were both silent. My mind was swimming. I blinked several times and shook my head slightly, trying to process what happened.

Hickory's POV

 _Uh oh, I've screwed up big time._

I was so happy that Maple suppressed her fears, fought off the Luxray, and _saved_ me from certain death, that I just immediately did the one thing that would best express how I was feeling towards her at the moment. I promised myself that I would hold back my feelings for her and just be friends, and I failed miserably.

 _What'll happen between us now? What'll she think of me?_ I thought panickingly.

I glanced back towards Maple and saw that she was looking at me. But before either of us said anything, a dreaded raindrop came down. It was followed by plenty more.

"Let's get out of the rain," she said.

We quickly sought refuge beneath a small tree with thick leaves. Good thing we did, because a minute after we were sheltered it suddenly started pouring. Being in that kind of rain would not be fun for a fire type like me. "Looks like we're not headed anywhere for a while," I said.

Maple lied down on the grass beneath the tree. I tried to follow suit but there was very little space that wasn't being bombarded with rain. Maple tried her best to make as much space as possible but there just wasn't enough.

Maple stood back up. "I know you won't be able to stand the rain since you're a fire type, so you take this dry space," she offered. "I'll stay in the rain."

 _She's so considerate…_ "I could never make you do that…" I responded.

"Well… alright, lie down and I'll try to squeeze in as much as possible," she suggested.

I lied down and inched to one side as far as I could. Maple lied down next to me and tucked her back and tail under the protection of the leaves above us. I felt very snug and comfy with her soft pelt against my side.

"This isn't too bad," said Maple.

"Not bad at all," I remarked. Good thing it was pitch black because I was blushing after I said that.

"Good thing it didn't start raining during the battle," she said.

"Yeah, I got really lucky with that," I said. "So… how did you feel, fighting the Luxray?" I asked.

"Well… it was still scary, but I was able to handle it," she said. "When I arrived at the scene and saw you get hit by the water, I just had to jump in. It was almost automatic. My instinct just told me to act right away to save you," she explained.

"Thank you so much for teaching me how to fight. Being able to do something instead of just watch… just feels amazing. Having the power to protect you the same way you protected me before just makes me feel so happy on the inside."

Her words almost made me want to nuzzle her again. Almost. _Good thing she's not asking me about that. I don't know what I would say to try to cover my behavior up… There's no denying that I really love her now. She's caring, beautiful, and strong too. There's just one big obstacle… No. Stop thinking like this. She won't feel the same way for me, she has a mate anyway!_

"Can I ask you something about leaf blade?" she asked, interrupting my forbidden thoughts.

"Sure, what is it?" I asked, making sure my voice was normal, without any trace of my thoughts.

"Did you see how I reflected the Luxray's thunderbolt with my leaf blade?" she brought up.

"Yeah, I noticed. That was a great defense," I said.

"I had no idea I could do that," she said. "Did you know?"

"Yeah, I knew about it, but I didn't think you were ready to do that kind of trick. It requires a lot of energy. But you figured it out yourself in the middle of a battle, which I'd say is a great way to learn something new."

"I put my tail in front of me because you said it's best to protect the rest of my body with my tail. Good thing I tried that against the thunderbolt otherwise I would have gotten shocked."

"It's probably better to just dodge attacks though," I reminded her.

"I remember, but I couldn't dodge at that moment because then the thunderbolt would hit you," she explained. "I had to protect you from it."

I smiled, even though it was too dark to see. "Again, thank you so much." My warm feelings for her resurfaced in my mind.

"Oh, another thing I noticed was that the thunderbolt reflected off of my tail in the same direction so I tilted my tail to hit Squash! I took that annoying fraud out in just one thunderbolt!"

My ears and tail drooped as my happy thoughts about Maple were replaced with self-directed anger and regret for not realizing that Squash was a raider all along. "Maple, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you when you said you didn't trust Squash," I apologized. "I… I'm just used to expecting everyone to have good intentions I guess. It never crossed my mind that a goofy, cheerful Simipour could be an evil bad guy. I put too much trust in strangers."

"It's okay, Hickory. Knowing you, you'll never make the same mistake again," she said, accepting my apology.

"Thanks Maple. You know me well." Relieved, the warm feelings came back twofold. "I wonder what happened to Squash after the battle," I said, realizing he had been defeated but not seeing him.

"Oh, I saw his footprints leading away from the battle site while we were walking away," she answered. "He must have run off on his own without any of us noticing, just like the coward he is."

"You sure don't like Squash," I said, somewhat jokingly.

"Of course, he took a whole bunch of my berries, he delayed us from rescuing Ariel, and he beat you up!"

"I'm interested in finding out his motive," I admitted. "Like I said before, I didn't suspect a goofy, cheerful Simipour to be a raider. There's got to be a reason."

"I bet he's actually really mean on the inside like the Luxray, and he was just acting nice as part of his act. You wouldn't suspect a Simipour to have bad intentions the way you would suspect a Luxray," she figured.

I yawned, the exhaustion from the battle kicking in. Despite only waking up a few hours ago, I felt ready to rest.

"Tired? Or are you just lazy?" Maple asked with a slight giggle.

"I'm not lazy! Just really tired after the battle." _I guess I am a little lazy. I picked the habit up from humans._

"I'm tired from the battle too. We won't be getting any patrol done with this rain, so why don't we go to sleep?" she suggested.

"Sounds like an excellent idea." I closed my eyes and said, "Good night, Maple."

"Good night, Hickory."

Despite the heavy rain, the battle exhaustion and the pleasant feel of her fur on mine quickly lulled me into a comfortable sleep.

* * *

The events of this chapter have been planned for quite a long time, so I'm really happy I finally got here!

A note on how I've been doing battles: When I mention fire energy, grass energy, electric energy, and such, I think of those as an "outside-of-game" adaptation of PP (power points), the measurement of how many times a pokémon can use a move. Technically in my story the PP is shared for all the moves because they all use that same energy. This system was basically imagined on the fly while I wrote about training and battles. I wanted to make some sort of system because obviously battles in a story can't be turn based.

So what'd y'all think of Maple's first victory? And hopefully you figured out Squash's true allegiance before Hickory did!


	15. Chapter 15

Maple's POV

 _What did Hickory mean by that nuzzle?_ was the question swimming in my mind as I watched him sleep beside me, distinctly remembering the warm brush of his cheek against mine. It was morning and the rain had stopped, but it was still cloudy and the grass was still wet. Both of us were nice and dry under our tree, but if I stretched my paw out to the side, I could feel the dampness of the grass right there.

I was expecting Hickory to need to sleep a lot more because he got beaten up way more than I had. I wasn't going to leave his side, in case the raiders came back or something. _I'm gonna destroy that horrible Simipour after what he did to Hickory, lying and sneak attacking him…_

To my relief, Hickory woke up not too long after I had. "Good afternoon, Hickory!" I said cheerfully.

He yawned. "Good after-... noon?" he asked, giving me a quizzical look.

"Yeah, you overslept through the whole morning!" I bluffed.

"What? And you waited for me the whole time? You should have woken me up."

"Well, I didn't want to interrupt your beauty sleep," I said sternly.

"I'm sorry I didn't wake up," he said, looking embarrassed.

"Yeah, you sleep too much," I said accusingly. He looked away. "I'm just kidding, Hickory. It's still morning and I've only been waiting for a few minutes."

"Oh… that's a relief, " he sighed.

"You fell for it completely!" I giggled.

"Well, it's not the first time I've been told that."

"I don't mind if you sleep a lot. How are you feeling?"

"I feel great, actually, because you're here," he said with a pleasant smile.

 _Yeah, if I wasn't here, Hickory wouldn't be here…_ I thought. The fact that my friend was on the ground, defeated, clouded my mind for a moment, but I pushed the thought away, since nothing bad happened, and smiled back at him. "Let's go get some food from my garden," I said.

"Okay," he agreed.

I stood up, and got surprised by how cold the cloudy morning was. I instinctively pressed back against Hickory's warm fur as he was getting up. I felt him jump in surprise. "Uh, s-sorry, i-it's a little c-cold this morning," I stuttered, all of a sudden feeling nervous for some reason. _Maybe the cold?_

"Heh, I don't have to worry about that anymore. I evolved into a Flareon because I never wanted to feel cold again," he said.

"Was that really why?"

"...No, it was because my trainer needed a fire type."

"Now that I think about it, I remember you saying you wanted to evolve into a Flareon back when we were young," I said.

"Yeah, 'cause Flareons are the coolest!" he said in an Eevee-like tone.

"Don't you mean... _warmest_?" I corrected him, stifling a laugh. He shook his head and facepawed.

 _He was just happy I came to save him,_ I thought dismissively as we walked to the field. _It was a normal response._

The air wasn't actually that cold, just really cold compared to Hickory's warm fur. When we got to the field, the grass was less damp since the open sunlight allowed the water to evaporate. My garden was looking nice and healthy after getting watered from the rain. If it was sunny out, the vibrant berry colors would really shine.

"Figy berries?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure," he said. We went and picked ripe Figy berries from the row of Figy bushes together. I noticed that Hickory was looking a little distressed.

"What's the matter? Did you lose your love of Figy berries?" I asked with a small laugh.

"Um, well… I kinda feel guilty that you're always giving me berries to eat all the time," he said slowly, "without me giving you anything in return."

I looked at him, noticing that he did look concerned. I never minded it when any of my friends ate my berries though. "You've given me plenty already. You taught me how to protect myself, which I think is worth more berries than a Snorlax can eat," I told him. "Seriously, I mean it," I insisted when he looked skeptical. "You also helped me strengthen my grass powers through training, which has allowed me to grow more berries faster. See, you've given me more than enough!"

"Hmm, I guess I didn't realize," he said.

"Yeah, I don't want you to ever leave our forest again," I said, speaking truly. "Now let's dig in!"

After we ate our delicious fresh Figy berries, I checked on my Custap bush. After the nice watering from the rain, the bush was looking beautiful with its red blooming flowers and healthy green leaves. I used my grass powers to grow the Custap bush, then gave some of the other plants some energy as well. Hickory watched me interestedly.

"Got any new training for me?" I asked him once I was done maintaining the garden.

"How about we practice reflecting attacks like you did with the thunderbolts last night?" Hickory offered.

"Alright, let's do that," I agreed.

He stood facing opposite of me in the field. I created my leaf blade, with ease now that I've become experienced. "Ready?" he asked.

"Ready," I said.

Hu used flamethrower, sending a streak of flame towards me. I could instantly feel the heat rise from the attack on my fur and it made me panic. It felt hotter and hotter as is quickly approached. Before I knew it, I found myself leaping away from the fire instead of trying to block it. My breaths came quick and I was sweating. I wasn't feeling strong or confident anymore after that first demoralizing flamethrower.

"There's nothing to be scared about," Hickory said, padding over to me. "You were able to handle fighting the Luxray, so you shouldn't have any fears about battling anymore."

"Your flamethrowers are a lot scarier than his thunderbolts," I argued.

"Thanks," he said with a grin. "Yeah, don't worry about being scared of fire attacks, it's natural for you. You'll get over it with time. Tell you what: I'll make the flames a lot smaller. I'll just shoot a small ember and you can reflect it."

"Alright, I'll try," I said, getting into a prepared stance. I felt a little fearful when Hickory breathed in, but he only released a small fire the size of maybe two berries. I turned to the side and held my tail in front of my body. The ember bounced off my tail, hit the ground in front of me, and died out, not harming me at all. I did have to put a little more grass energy into my tail but that's it.

"That'll protect you from getting hurt, but there's something even better you can do. Fire an energy ball at me please," he requested, lighting his own tail up.

I ended my leaf blade and started an energy ball. It quickly grew in size and I fired it at Hickory. As the attack approached him, he swung his tail at it, and it came flying back towards me even faster. I quickly leaped to the side and my energy ball exploded on the ground behind me.

"Ready to try that?" he asked, ending his iron tail.

"Okay, I'll try," I said, forming my leaf blade again. He fired another small ember at me. I turned and swung my tail, but… I knew I missed because I felt a hot, burning feeling at my side. My eyes widened and I let out a squeak. The painful feeling died off in a few seconds. _If that's only an ember, I don't even want to think about getting hit by flamethrower or fire blast…_

"Try again?" Hickory asked gently.

"I think I'd rather just dodge or block attacks instead of trying to send them back," I answered meekly.

"You could do that… but you shouldn't just settle for that," he disagreed. "You'll get this working in no time. I know you can, you learned everything else really quickly," he encouraged me. "I believe in you." His words made me feel warm on the inside... or it might've just been his ember attack.

He fired another ember at me and I missed again. "I don't like getting hit by fire at all," I complained. "Do you know any other kind of attack I can send back?"

"No... but I have an idea. You fire an energy ball at me," he said, readying his iron tail, "and I'll reflect it back at you. Then you reflect it back at me, and repeat. It won't hurt either of us very much because we're both resistant to grass moves. This'll be fun!" he declared, grinning now.

"Okay, I'll try it," I said. I gathered my energy in front of me, formed a small energy ball, and fired it at Hickory. He whacked it with his tail, sending it flying back at me. I swung my tail at my returning energy ball, but missed. The explosion made me spread my legs back so that I wouldn't fall over. The second time, I was able to hit the energy ball, but it didn't go anywhere near Hickory. The third time I missed again.

After a while though, I was able to hit the energy ball and send it accurately back to Hickory. As we sent the energy ball back and forth, it got faster and faster and the impact if I missed got more and more dangerous, which encouraged me to be more and more accurate.

"This training is the most fun training I've had in a long time!" Hickory remarked.

"Definitely!" I agreed, having gotten the hang of it in no time, just like he said I would.

We had a very long streak going without the energy ball exploding when we heard a loud squawk.

Hickory's POV

I looked towards the source of the sound, and before I knew it, the high speed energy ball smacked into my side and exploded, knocking me to the ground.

I got up and smiled when I saw the soaring figure of Falc, Hooves and Cedar following on foot, a Slowbro walking along with them, three Mightyenas, and lastly Spruce in the rear.

"Are you alright, Hickory?" Maple asked.

"I'm fine," I answered. "Look, The Guard's back."

Falc tucked his wings in and dived towards us. As he approached, he spread his wings back out and smoothly landed on the grass on his feet, resting his wings at his sides and puffing his chest out in a stance of pride.

"Hey Falc," I said.

"Great to see you, Hickory. It's great to be back home," Falc said.

"How'd it go?" I asked immediately.

"Well, at the -"

"Maple!"

Falc and I turned our heads to see Spruce quickly approached us. Behind me, Maple eagerly trotted forward to meet her… mate… and said, "Hey, Spruce!"

Spruce went up to Maple and nuzzled her passionately. I jerked my head the other way after less than a second. _I can't bear to watch…_

"Ah, this field is the perfect place for a forest-wide meeting! You three, gather all the pokémon from the forest and bring them here," Falc commanded, addressing the Mightyenas.

"Will do, Captain!" they said, and dashed off.

"Hey, Hickory! Great to see you again!" exclaimed Hooves.

"Tell me about the campaign!" I requested. "I heard from the Pokémon who returned that it was going poorly…"

"Well, at the beginning, we had all those recruits. However, they really were just dead weight," Falc started. "We got into a fight with the raiders as soon as we entered their forest-"

"And those spineless fools deserted us!" Hooves interjected.

"It was nighttime when we arrived over there, so a lot of the recruits were really spooked and put off by the unseen ambush. A huge chunk of them left after the first fight, but we still had some recruits," Cedar explained. "Over the next few days, though, the remaining recruits gave up and went home."

"I've missed you so much…" I heard Spruce say from behind me.

"Those wimps were scared of The Raiders and just didn't have what it takes," Hooves remarked.

"The only one who stayed with us the whole time was Cypress right here," said Falc, tapping the Slowbro with his wing. "Thanks again for all your help," Falc told Cypress.

"Wow, you really did miss me…" I heard the voice of my friend say.

"You've said that too many times already," Cypress remarked with a slight chuckle.

"We went around looking for raiders for the next few days, but they seemed to have disappeared. No one tried attacking us," Cedar said. "The locals seemed disapproving of us. We didn't get good treatment. The trip wasn't pleasant."

"After a few days, we decided we'd done enough against The Raiders and planned to come home. It was when we were leaving the forest that we encountered the biggest trouble," Falc said. "The Raiders attacked us full force. The battle was manageable, but Hooves broke his leg during the fight. If that hadn't happened, we could've returned a lot sooner."

"What were you doing here?" I faintly heard Spruce ask.

"Luckily, this fella has healing powers, so he fixed up my leg much faster than it would've taken to heal on its own," Hooves said, pointing his hoof at Cypress.

Cypress smiled meekly. "It was nothing, really," he said in his calm tone.

 _He probably knows heal pulse,_ I thought to myself.

"And now we're back here," Falc concluded.

"C'mon dear, let's go to our den where we can be alone together, just you and me."

"Alright, let's go."

 _Hey, Maple is blowing off our training to be with that jerk!_ I instantly thought. _She clearly doesn't care about me compared to him!_ I could feel my body heat start to rise.

 _To be fair, he was her mate, and he just got back. Stop overreacting._

"See you later, Hickory!" Maple said, interrupting my thoughts.

I calmed myself down before it showed on the outside. "Uh, yeah, see ya," I hastily responded.

The rest of us watched the… couple... go off. "I wouldn't have thought Spruce had a mate," Cypress remarked.

"He never mentioned?" I asked Cypress, surprised. He shook his head.

"So Hickory, did you get the message from my scout to do the night watch?" Falc asked.

"Yes, I did. In fact, I fought a Luxray three times over the past two nights, as well as his Simipour accomplice."

While we were talking, I heard some commotion coming from the other side of the field. When I looked over there, I saw a small crowd of pokémon being led by a Mightyena. "Captain Falcon!" the Mightyena called. The crowd made its way over to us. "I got most of the pokémon from that part of the forest with me. The others should be coming soon."

"Thank you," Falc said.

"It's my honor, captain," the Mightyena, said with a salute. I tried not to laugh.

"Hey everyone! Your Guard is back!" Hooves exclaimed, galloping over to be in front of the crowd. "We, The Guard, are back from our campaign!"

The crowd started asking questions and shouting some praise.

"They're awfully popular, aren't they?" Cypress remarked.

"You aren't going to address the crowd with them?" I asked Cedar.

"Nah, I don't like doing that anymore," he said. "Usually Spruce is there with them, though. Addressing crowds is like their favorite part of the job. The three of them like being famous."

"I think I'll pass on that," I said.

"Same here," Cypress agreed.

After a little while, two more small crowds arrived at the field led by their own Mightyenas, Adam and Eric. Falc and Hooves announced the Guard's return to the other groups as well. Once everyone was assembled, Falc flew overhead over everyone and started his speech. Hooves moved into the crowd while Cypress, Cedar, and I stayed off to the side.

"We had an astounding campaign!" Falc announced proudly. "We defeated plenty of raiders, and we definitely deterred anyone else from joining them after our show of strength. There should be less and less raiders coming here to disturb our peace from now on." The crowd cheered loudly.

"I want to sincerely thank all of the pokémon who came with us to help us on our campaign. No matter how long you were with us, your contribution made a difference." The crowd cheered again.

"Such lies," Cypress huffed. "Falc was really mad when all those other guys deserted us."

"Yeah, you were the only guy who stayed and really helped us out," Cedar said.

"Why did you stick with them the whole time rather than call it quits?" I asked.

"I joined the campaign to do the right thing, and I didn't want to give up on that," Cypress said. "It is a little upsetting that Falc is complimenting those other guys who quit while I was the only one who stayed, but I don't need recognition."

"But there's one pokémon out of all the other recruits who truly made a great contribution to our campaign. It would not have been a success without him."

Hooves came running over to us, slapped Cypress on the shoulder, and exclaimed, "This Slowbro right here, Cypress!"

The entire crowd turned their heads to see the one who was recognized by the captain of the guard. Cypress pulled a surprised, weak smile, and meekly vocalized, "Hey everyone." The crowd cheered for him, making him blush. I was laughing on the inside at how awkward Cypress was, even though I knew it wasn't nice to think like that. I could tell Cypress was desperately waiting for Falc to start speaking again so that everyone would turn their heads away from him.

"Cypress stayed with us through the whole campaign," Falc continued.

"And he healed my leg!" Hooves broke in. The crowd cheered again for Cypress, all of them still locked on him. I could see him start to sweat.

"And let's not forget our good friend Cedar, the strong and humble Herdier right here," Hooves said, tapping Cedar with his hoof. Cedar smiled and nodded. "And also Hickory a relatively new addition to our Guard, who protected our forest while we were gone," he said, coming over and tapping me. I waved to everyone.I grinned and waved to the crowd.

Falc started narrating the general story of the campaign. Since it was for the crowd, he made it sound a lot more interesting and exciting than what he told me. "There should not be any more raiders coming to our forest anymore!" he concluded with. "Of course, we will, without a doubt, continue our watch duties as the Guard. You will forever have nothing to fear!"

Amongst the crowd's next bunch of cheers, "Thank you Captain Falcon!" and "We love you, Captain Falcon!" could be heard.

"Too bad Spruce isn't here. He's missing his favorite part of our job," Cedar remarked.

"Well, sucks for him," I said. He shrugged.

"I think I've had enough," said Cypress. "I'm going to head home now. See you two around."

"See ya," Cedar and I said.

Setting aside the cheers for a moment, Falc came flying down to us. "Where's he going?" Falc asked.

"He's tired of the crowd so he's heading home," Cedar answered.

"Alright," Falc shrugged. "Cedar, you don't want to say anything?"

"You know I don't like to anymore," Cedar answered clearly.

Falc gave an affirmative nod then turned to me. "Hickory, why don't you say something?"

"I don't know, speaking to a crowd isn't my strong suit. I don't know what I'd say, either. I'm fine with just you saying my name. And I don't want to take the spotlight away from you or Hooves, you guys seem to enjoy it very much."

"Captain Falcon!" Falc and I looked towards the excited voice and saw two growlithes dashing over to us. I smiled, recognizing them.

"Hey boys! Great to see ya!" Falc greeted them grandly, standing tall.

The boys' faces were unable to contain the joy of being greeted by their idol in such an enthusiastic way.

"How many evil monsters did you defeat?" one of them asked excitedly.

"Oh, more than you can count," Falc replied casually.

The two boys started whispering frantically to each other.

"You ask him!"

"No, _you_ ask him!"

"Ask me what?" Falc asked, leaning towards them slightly.

The boys jumped up in surprise, as if they thought Falc had some sort of Audino hearing. "Uh… c-can we… c-can you…" one Growlithe stuttered.

"Can you take us on a flight?" the other Growlithe asked, the words coming out in a rush.

"Sure!" Falc exclaimed immediately.

"Hooray!" the Growlithes cheered.

"Now, I can only take one at a time, so who's first?"

"Me! Me!" they both chanted.

"First one to tap my wing gets to go first!" Falc told them, extending his wing. The Growlithes charged forward, but Falc lifted his wing up as they approached. One of them leapt up and batted Falc's wing with his paw.

"We have a winner!" Falc announced.

"Yay!" the winning Growlithe exclaimed.

"But I'm next, right?" the other Growlithe asked.

"That's right!" Falc said as the first Growlithe hopped on.

"Stand back everyone! I'm gonna need some space!" Falc commanded. Everyone took a few steps away. Falc took off vertically in a really non-practical but elegant looking way, flapping his wings wide. Then he went off on the flight, his passenger screaming wildly in excitement, attracting a lot of attention, their flame-like colors standing out against the cloudy sky. By the time Falc returned to the take off site, a small bunch of kids were waiting there for a flight. The other Growlithe eagerly hopped onto Falc's back.

"Who wants a ride with me?" Hooves exclaimed, appearing on the scene. "Hop on my back and I'll run you across the field faster than Captain Falcon can fly you across!" Cedar and I laughed at Hooves's attempt to infiltrate Falc's business. To our surprise, a few kids went forward for a ride with Hooves.

"Is that a challenge?" Falc challenged his friend.

"You bet it is!"

We watched, amused, as Falc and Hooves raced each other across the field and back, their passengers having quite the ride. I must say, I was pretty impressed by their ability to travel full speed while keeping the kids safe on their backs. As the races went on, the crowd spread out along a make-believe sideline to watch the two fiery Guard members charge by, cheering them on.

"Would Spruce be racing with Falc and Hooves if he were here?" I asked Cedar.

But Cedar was looking at the group of children lined up for rides. One of them, a Lillipup, was looking back towards us. The Lillipup left the line and came trotting over to us.

"Daddy!"

I looked behind us to see who the child was addressing. "Hey Willow," said the voice to my side. I jerked my head back towards my friend, who had walked forward to meet the child. Smiling, Cedar gently scratched the Lillipup's head between the ears, making her giggle.

"How have you been, dear?" Cedar asked softly, smiling. _Wow, that's the most emotion I've ever heard come out of Cedar..._

"I've been fine," the Lillipup, Willow, replied.

"Want to go on a walk with me?" Cedar asked her, who nodded. As the two headed off, I tried making eye contact with my friend, but he didn't glance towards me at all. I decided not to talk, and leave Cedar to… his daughter, apparently.

"Why didn't you come and say good-bye before you left?" I faintly heard Willow say to her dad as they walked away.

"Hey Hickory," I heard someone say. I turned my head and saw Max the Arcanine looking displeased.

"Hey Max," I greeted with an amused smile, having a faint idea about what was on his mind.

"Ugh, I can barely stand watching my boys take rides from those two show offs," Max criticised predictably. "I'd drag them home if Cassie would let me... Oh, Uh…please forgive me for insulting your friends," he added, looking a little embarrassed.

"They're just having fun," I said. "And the kids are having fun too."

After Falc and Hooves were too tired to continue their rides, most of the pokémon started leaving the field and returning to whatever they were doing before the Mightyenas brought them all here. "Before you leave, say thanks to our savior, Captain Falcon!" one of the Mightyenas hollered. The pokémon went to praise Falc before leaving. Of course, Hooves jumped in too. I got in with the crowd and criticised them in a joking manner, but they weren't really listening to what pokémon were specifically saying so there was no reaction.

"Today was a great day! Well, see y'all later!" said Hooves, trotting off as the last of the crowd was leaving the field.

Falc and me walked off together. As we left, Falc's proud expression turned sad for a moment. "What's up?" I asked him. "Did someone leave without saying thanks to you?" I said with a laugh.

"Ariel didn't show up," he said quietly. "I wanted to say hi to her. I… miss her after all this time I was away."

I felt regretful as I remembered what happened to the unfortunate Pidgeot. "Uh, Falc… Ariel left our forest."

His eyes widened. "What? Why?" he squawked.

I felt even worse on the inside when I remembered it was me who wasn't able to protect one of our forest's inhabitants. "One of the raiders, a Luxray, attacked her at night…"

"Is she… okay?" he gulped.

"Yeah, I arrived at the scene and fought the Luxray off. She was hurt, but nothing too serious. The shock of getting attacked at night was probably very terrifying for her."

"But she's okay now, right?" he inquired frantically.

"I assume she's alright, but she's not here anymore…"

"What are you talking about?" he demanded angrily.

"Uh… she said she had enough of the raiders and was going to fly off to another forest as soon as she was healthy enough to," I had to tell him.

"But there shouldn't be as many raiders coming anymore! Didn't she know I was out to defeat them?"

"Well… maybe she just had enough after getting attacked twice…"

"She… didn't even want to say good-bye to me…?" Falc said quietly in a very un-Falc-like tone.

"She did say something along the lines of being mad at you for not being there to protect her after promising to…" I brought up.

"I was only gone for… not too long… why did it have to be her that got attacked by the raiders…?"

The reason for the attack on Maple quickly surfaced in my mind, which made me realize why Ariel was attacked as well. "I think I do know why they attacked Ariel," I spoke up. Falc turned his head towards me. "It might be because of her connection with you. Maple was attacked by the raiders because she's Spruce's mate." I paused, the sound of those words not coming off of my tongue smoothly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Falc demanded.

"The raiders hurt Spruce's mate because they hate Spruce. That was their way of getting at Spruce. They must've had the same idea with you. They hate you, so they attacked your, um... love interest... in order to hurt you."

"That's evil!" Falc squawked. "If I ever see them again, I'll really take it to them! Hurting innocent Ariel… to hurt me… I'm the reason she got attacked..." he realized.

 _They are evil… but why?_ I suddenly remembered what the Luxray had said as his motive. "Falc, have you ever… killed a raider?" I asked, trying not to sound accusatory.

"What? No! Why would you say that?!" Falc squawked angrily.

"I heard the Luxray say to his accomplice that he hates you guys because you guys killed a friend of his," I explained.

"And you believe him? C'mon Hickory, why would you believe your enemy and not your friend?"

"I don't believe him, that's why I'm asking you!" I shot back, also angry now.

"Well I haven't killed a raider," Falc repeated.

 _If Falc did kill someone, he'll obviously deny it,_ I reasoned.

 _What am I thinking?! My friend wouldn't kill someone, why would I believe the Luxray?_

"I'm going to see if I can find Ariel," Falc suddenly said, taking flight.

"Alright, good luck."


	16. Chapter 16

Sorry for the extremely later than normal update. The reason for the long delay is that I've gone back through my story and made slight revisions to some of the plot to make it work better.

The following changes to the story are:

Tyranitar has been removed from the story. The Luxray is the leader of The Raiders now. Throughout the story, Hickory has been trying to figure out the motive. At first, Hickory if told that the raiders hate the Guard because the Guard had repeatedly beaten the raiders , but the real motive was revealed in Chapter 14 and discussed in Chapter 15 and this chapter as well.

Before I had Falc say it was normal to kill raiders, but I've taken that out because I realized it was way too brutal and unjustifiable. The Guard is not aiming to kill any raiders anymore, just driving them away. Killing is not normal.

Hickory's talk with Spike in Chapter 6 about some details about The Raiders has been changed.

The campaign was not really a victory, and no one was killed.

All the chapters have been slightly changed to fit the new backstory and motive for the raiders.

* * *

Maple's POV

We were alone in the den, just Spruce and me. I was glad we were on good terms right away despite the slight conflict the last time we were alone together.

"What did you do while I was gone?" Spruce asked.

"I've been growing my garden more," I said first. "I finally got a berry from my Custap plant."

"You finally did, huh? How was it?" he asked.

"It was amazing, even better than I expected!" I said, recalling the sweet taste.

"But it took you so long just to make one berry," Spruce said. "Was it really worth it? You could've grown so many more normal berry plants instead of that one Custap plant."

"It was totally worth it!" I confirmed. "Custap berries are my favorite."

"But it takes so long to get a single Custap berry compared to other kinds. Other berries are much more worth it to grow."

"But I didn't grow the Custap plant just for the Custap berries, it's also about the challenge of growing such an interesting plant," I explained. Spruce never liked me growing the Custap plant. He thought it was a waste of time.

"It would've taken even longer, but after Hickory had me practice my grass powers, I've been able to grow the Custap plant much faster than before. I owe it all to him."

"Well, don't take the credit away from yourself. You deserve it, dear, not Hickory."

"While your were gone, I also trained with Hickory after he got better. He taught me a new attack! Wanna see?" I asked eagerly.

"Hm, okay," Spruce said unenthusiastically.

I lifted my tail, extended it straight into air, tensed it, and poured my grass energy into it. My tail hardened, turned sharp, and glowed bright green in our dark den. Spruce flinched from the sudden flash of bright light.

"Alright, I see. Could you stop it now? You know I don't like bright light."

"Okay," I said, stopping the flow of energy to my tail and relaxing it.

"Why is Hickory teaching you this stuff?" Spruce inquired, sounding disdainful for some reason.

"I asked him to teach me how to battle so that I can protect myself from the raiders," I said.

"But I'm here to protect you," he said.

"But, it doesn't hurt to know how to protect myself," I said uneasily.

"You don't trust that I can protect you?" he asked accusingly.

"Well… you weren't here to protect me while you were out on the campaign," I brought up. "I should be prepared for when you're not here."

"But I'll always be here for you," he insisted.

"I got attacked while you were out on the campaign," I told him.

"What?! Who was it?!" he demanded. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm totally fine. I'm right here, right?" I said, exasperated by his reaction. "It was a Luxray," I said.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't here to protect you," Spruce said.

"It's alright, I was able to protect myself," I said. _Well, not really, Hickory came to save me, but I did manage to stand up and fight after that._

"I'll find him, and I'll beat the crap out of him, I promise. How dare he… attack… _my_ mate…" Spruce seethed.

"Y-you don't have to, I-I'm fine, really," I stuttered, put off by his threatening tone.

"I promised I would protect you from all harm. I promise that I will keep that promise to you," Spruce said. "Don't you worry about ever having to fight any raider again, dear. I promise I will keep them away from you."

Even though his promise meant I wouldn't have to face anymore scary raiders, for some reason I felt like suddenly wanted to fight the raiders. "You don't have to make such a promise," I said. "I don't mind fighting to protect myself. I don't want you to protect me forever. I want to be able to stand up to them as well."

"Are you saying I'm not strong enough to protect you?" Spruce said, sounding offended.

"N-no, it's not that at all!" I immediately said, not wanting to make him sound weak. "It's just that it feels good being able to stand up to them instead of hide behind someone else."

"But it's _my job_ to protect you," Spruce stressed.

"Ugh, fine! If you insist," I conceded. I didn't understand why he was so insistent on protecting me. What was the big deal?

* * *

The next day went pretty normally after adjusting to life with Spruce back. Spruce went to a Guard meeting in the afternoon. I was at my garden like usual. As I was walking towards the middle of the garden to my Custap plant, I heard some movement from behind me. Suddenly I felt a small paw bat my leaf-like tail. Turning around, I spotted a grinning Lillipup out of the Oran bushes.

"Hello there, Willow," I said with a smile.

"Hi Maple!" the little pokémon greeted me enthusiastically, hopping out of the bushes with a wagging tail and blue stains around her mouth.

"How was that Oran berry that you ate?" I asked with a chuckle.

"It was amazing!" she squealed. "So juicy! Aren't Oran berries the juiciest?"

"Yes they are," I agreed.

Suddenly Willow hid behind me as another pokémon, a Herdier, came from around the bushes on the other side. She spotted me and said, "Oh, hello Maple. I'm looking for my daughter." I felt the little pokémon behind me shift around.

"Hi Hazel," I said. "What brings you and Willow to the garden?"

"You've seen Willow? Where'd she go?" Hazel demanded. Willow tried to escape back into the bushes, but Hazel spotted her. "There you are, Willow!"

"Uh-oh," I heard Willow whisper as she entered the bushes. Hazel rushed over to the other side and intercepted her daughter as she exited the Oran bush.

"I told you not to hide in the bushes! Now you got caught by Maple!" Hazel really sounded mad. "Maple never said you could play in her garden, did she?"

Willow's ears drooped down. "I'm sorry mom…" she whispered, studying the ground.

"You say that every time," the Herdier snapped.

"I'm sure she was just having fun," I interrupted. "I don't mind at all."

"And is that berry juice on your face? Willow, you can't eat someone else's berries without asking! Can you get any worse today?!"

I flinched from what Hazel was saying to get child. _Something's the matter with Hazel today,_ I figured. _No mother could be that harsh to their child._

"B-but mom-"

"You never listen to me," Hazel scolded.

I placed my paw on the Herdier's shoulder. "Willow, I'll let you go play in my bushes. Feel free to have another berry too, if you want. She can go play, right Hazel?"

"Alright, go ahead," she said stiffly.

"Thanks Maple!" Willow said, hopping up and leaping into the bushes.

Hazel sighed, looking down. "Why are you in a bad mood?" I asked Hazel.

"Ugh, I had to talk with _him_ yesterday," she seethed. "Yesterday I was at the Guard thing with Willow, and she left in order to get a ride on the back of Captain Falcon. But she didn't come back to me, and I had to go looking for her. Then _he_ showed up at my den with Willow."

"Oh, I see…" There were a few moments of silence. "What was he doing with her, if you don't mind me asking?" I said cautiously.

She shrugged. "They went around the first and filled around and stuff."

"Did Willow have a good time? Sounds like she did."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Then I don't see anything to be upset about," I told her.

"Willow ran off to hang out with _him_ instead of me, and she didn't even tell me!" Hazel complained.

 _But Willow's with you all the time, and if she told you, you wouldn't have let her,"_ I imagined answering with, but I didn't because Hazel would just get mad at me.

Some more silence passed. I waited until Hazel seemed calm enough, then quietly asked, "Hazel, why did you leave Cedar?"

"Because spent the daytime sleeping instead of taking care of Willow and he promised to protect me but didn't because he was sleeping," she said sternly.

"Why was he sleeping?" I asked, confused. "Oh wait, was he doing the night watch?" I asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" she asked.

"Spruce does the same thing," I explained.

"Oh. I see," she grunted.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, why were you with Cedar in the first place?"

She sighed heavily. "I thought he was the coolest guy ever when he protected me from a Persian. Things were going very smoothly at first, but after he became the night guard, I couldn't stand him."

"How did everyone react to you leaving your mate?"

"They were confused at first, and I was pretty reluctant to explain. But I found it easier to deal with once I started explaining, and others understood better. Now, why are you asking me about it?"

"Uh, um, just curious…" I stuttered.

She shrugged. "Where is Spruce right now?" she asked.

"At a guard meeting," I sighed.

Hickory's POV

"Spruce, do you still want to do the night watch?" Falc asked. "I can take over if you want, I don't really have anyone special to see during the day anymore…"

"Uh… let me think about it," Spruce hesitated.

 _I should encourage Spruce to continue, that way I can spend more time with Maple!_ I thought maliciously. I looked at Spruce. _But on second thought, if Spruce broke his promise, that would make Maple upset, and I don't want her to get upset,_ I realized, reprimanding myself for thinking such selfish thoughts.

"I'll still be the night guard," Spruce said. "It's what I always do, what I'm known for."

"Alright, whatever you want," Falc shrugged. I nodded naturally, despite being guiltily happy on the inside.

The others headed off. I followed Cedar, wanting to ask him something I had on my mind for a while.

"Hey Cedar, I didn't know you had a daughter," I said.

"I don't get to see Willow much," he said, sounding the slightest bit upset. Just like when I saw Cedar with his daughter, I was not accustomed to Cedar showing this much emotion.

"Why is that?" I asked, confused.

"Her mother and I don't get along very well," he said quietly, looking down.

"Oh, I see…" I was going to just leave it at that, but then Cedar continued.

"Willow's mother is a Herdier like me. Her name is Hazel. Before, she had always been my long time crush. I used to think she was the most beautiful thing in the world," he said disdainfully, shaking his head. "But now I regret ever fighting that Persian for her…"

"Persian?" I instantly said out loud, my eyes widening in surprise. "What Persian?"

"One day I saw a Persian harassing Hazel. He was trying to flirt with her, but she didn't like it. She told him to go away and he didn't. So I jumped in and fought him. I beat him up and he ran away. Hazel loved me the instant I saved her, which thrilled my former self beyond thought. I invited her to stay with me at my den, and before I knew it, we were mates and she was pregnant." He sighed. "Our relationship got serious way too fast. Way too fast."

 _I never would've thought Cedar would be this kind of guy..._

"The Persian came back one day while Hazel was pregnant. He wanted revenge for his defeat by me, and was going to hurt Hazel. Falc and Spruce were in the area, and the three of us beat him up real good. He hasn't come back since."

 _The Luxray said his Persian friend got killed by The Guard. Could it be true?_ I wondered. _The stories seem to line up…_

 _But Cedar only said they beat the Persian up, not kill him._

 _But why would anyone mention themselves killing someone else?_

 _But would Cedar, Falc, and Spruce really kill someone?_

"If you're interested, I'll tell you the rest of the story about me, Hazel, and Willow," he offered.

"Sure, I do want to hear more," I said.

"Willow was born around the time the raiders first started coming," Cedar continued. "Falc, Spruce, and me formed The Guard in order to stop The Raiders. I wanted to be the night guard, because protecting everyone makes you famous around here, you know?"

 _Sounds just like Spruce and Falc,_ I thought with a chuckle.

"But Hazel and I were growing distant. As the night guard, I was awake during the night and asleep during the day. That meant I couldn't spend any time with my mate and daughter.

Also, Hazel wasn't the angel I thought she was. Once I got past the beautiful looks and soft voice, I discovered that Hazel wasn't too nice of a pokémon at all. She was always very demanding and she always wanted everything done her way."

"It's not fair for me to criticize her, though, because I'm sure I turned out even worse to her expectations than she did for mine. I was supposed to protect her and be with her always. She told me to stop doing the night watch, but I told her I was protecting the whole forest, including her.

"One day she got attacked by raiders while I was asleep. The rest of The Guard protected her, but I wasn't there. After that event, Hazel left me, bringing Willow with her. I was devastated by my failure as a mate. I went from being the awesome night guard to the guy who mistreated his mate. That was pretty long ago, so you don't hear pokémon talking about it anymore, but it has never left me. That prompted me to change.

"I used to be just like Falc, Spruce, and Hooves, grabbing all the popularity I could get, as well as a beautiful mate. But I'm not like that anymore because being the night guard back then led to me losing my mate and daughter. Nowadays, I do the night watch and went on the campaign because I want to protect our forest, not because it's cool.

"Now I rarely get to hang out with Willow without Hazel being around and shooing me away from my daughter. I feel so bad for Willow because it's not fair to her," he said, his voice wavering now. "It's a terrible feeling, not being able to be with your kid. If there's one thing I want to tell anyone, it would be to make absolute sure you'll be able to be with your kids before having them.

"But if I mentioned that to anyone, they'll recall my broken relationship and probably make fun of me, so I try to avoid talking about my past. Although... I actually feel a lot better now that I've talked through the whole thing with someone. Thanks for asking about it and listening," he said.

"No problem," I said with a smile. "Now, there is one thing that I want to ask you about again," I said.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Can you tell me more about the Persian who you said you rescued Hazel from?" I requested.

"Hmm… I don't really remember much, except that he was a Persian and he was really rude."

"What happened to him?" I asked next.

"I've never seen him again after the time he came and attacked me and Hazel," he said. "Why do you ask about him?"

"I've been trying to figure out why the raiders come and attack us in the first place," I explained. "At first, I learned that the raiders hate the guard members because we beat them up, but that doesn't explain why they came here the first time. I figured there had to be a deeper reason why they came and attacked you guys the first time." I paused, trying to think of a nice way to phrase what I heard that reason was.

"Have you figured out that reason?" Cedar asked. "I definitely would like to know it."

"Well… I heard the Luxray say to another raider that you guys, um... killed his friend, a Persian. That's why he hates you guys."

"What?! But we didn't kill that Persian," Cedar said defensively.

"I believe you," I said. "I didn't think my friends would kill someone. I'm going to investigate more in order to figure it all out."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Just in case you missed it, there were some small changes to the story's plot. The details are at the beginning of last chapter.

* * *

Maple's POV

The rough pounding of paws outside the den snapped me awake. I jerked my head towards the entrance, but it was always too dark at night to see anything in this part of the forest where the canopy was too thick for any moonlight or starlight to filter through. The pokémon stopped just outside my den. Scared, I lied there in my bed, holding my breath, not making a sound.

 _Calm down Maple. If it's Luxray, Hickory said you can handle him._

The increasing volume of the pawsteps indicated that the pokémon entered the den. With a rush of determination, I jumped onto four paws with a growl and used leaf blade. The pokémon cried out in surprise.

"Whoa, dear! What're you doing?!"

The green light from my tail sprang out and filled the den, allowing me to see the pokémon's black fur.

"Spruce!" I exclaimed, "you scared me! Why didn't you say it was you, or at least make your rings glow? I thought you were the Luxray or someone!"

"You're supposed to be asleep, so I didn't want to wake you," he said. "Don't hold that leaf blade up," he said. "You know I don't like bright light." His voice actually came out weak, almost pleading.

I noticed he had some wounds and was standing up unevenly. Something was very wrong. "What's the matter?" I asked.

"I just fought that evil Luxray off!" he exclaimed.

A wave of shock and disappointment went through me. Things were really getting back to normal, with Spruce back, no mentions or encounters of raiders for over two weeks, and now Spruce comes home beaten up.

I lowered my leaf blade, but without it, the den was pitch black again. I had to put grass energy into my tail for a little bit of light. "Why aren't your rings glowing?" I asked Spruce. Usually the yellow glow of his rings have us the light we needed in our den. I've never needed to use my own grass energy in the den before when Spruce was here.

"I'm really exhausted after the fight so I'm saving my strength by not making my rings glow," he explained.

"Here, you have to eat these," I instructed, passing him a leaf basket with Oran berries in it. After I got attacked by the Luxray last time, I decided to keep some Oran berries around just in case. As Spruce ate, his rings slowly started to glow yellow like normal during the night. I watched him gobble up the healthy Oran berries. Staring at the battle wounds he had sustained, I came up with an idea.

"Spruce, how about I come with you on the night watch? I can help you out," I suggested.

He stopped eating and looked at me. "I don't want you to put yourself in danger," he told me.

"I don't mind getting hurt a little," I said. "I want to help you out so you don't come home so injured to the point that you don't have the energy to light your rings."

"I don't need help," he said gruffly. "The night guard is my job, and I can do it on my own."

"I know you can do it on your own, but I want to help you anyway," I said. "You saved me from the raiders all that time ago, so I want to repay you for saving me."

"You don't need to repay me. It's my job to protect you, as your mate," he said.

"But I'm your mate too, you know. I also feel like I should protect you as well. Now that I know how to fight, I can help you."

"I don't need protection or help on the night watch," he said firmly.

I let out a disappointed sigh. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

* * *

The next night I was once again snapped awake by someone entering the den.

"Spruce? Is that you again?" I called out.

The pokémon stopped moving. No verbal response. _Crap, it might actually be the Luxray this time…_

I instantly regretted calling out for Spruce. Staring into the darkness, I realized there was no hiding or escape. I was all alone. Hickory wouldn't be coming to save me in the middle of the night, and Spruce was out there somewhere. _Maybe Spruce will come back to check on me,_ I hoped, although the chance was slim. I knew that I had to confront whoever was here.

I hadn't heard any sounds after I had spoke. _Maybe there's no one there anymore._ But I heard the intruder come in, and I hadn't heard anyone go out, so the intruder had to still be there, silent and invisible. The only way I would know was if I made a move.

 _You must face your fears and be strong with me,_ I recalled Hickory saying to me, right here in my den. With that in mind, I launched out of my bed, my leaf blade shining bright against the darkness, lighting up the entire den in bright green.

"Augh!"

Standing in the middle of the den in front of me was a bipedal, blue and tan furred pokémon, his hands in front of his face, shielding his eyes from the sudden burst of light from my leaf blade.

"YOU!" I exclaimed, instantly remembering who this Simipour was and what he had done to my best friend. _I'm gonna beat his brains out for tricking and betraying Hickory!_ I thought furiously as I leaped towards him, leaf blade ready.

However, as I landed my forepaw and spun around, swinging my leaf bladed tail towards him, a blast of water coming out of the Simipour's tail hit me at my side, knocking me down. Good thing it didn't hurt that much. I was a bit disappointed with myself for not anticipating the attack though. Looking up, I saw Squash fleeing the den. I quickly got up and began making my way out, but then slipped on the water that was flooding the den, painfully crashing back down onto the hard, wet ground.

Slowly and carefully, I stood back up and exited the den. Unable to see in the dark night, I listened closely, hearing frantic pawsteps getting farther away from me from my left. I gathered my grass energy in front of me and fired an energy ball in that direction. My attack illuminated the forest in green as it traveled. I got a glimpse of the fleeing raider's blue fur before my energy ball collided with a tree and exploded with a big burst of green, then the night was pitch black again. Deciding it was not a good idea to try and follow the Simipour in the middle of the night, I turned back into my den. I was disappointed that he got away, but I convinced myself that him running away was a good thing, because that meant he saw me as dangerous enough that he did not want to stick around and fight.

I looked at the flooded den and the soaked leaves of our bed. _This wouldn't have happened if Spruce was here,_ I thought. I sighed and took the soggy bed apart. I would have to get new leaves for a new bed tomorrow. _Spruce is supposed to catch raiders like that Simipour on his night watch! He promised me I wouldn't get attacked,_ I thought furiously as I used the soggy leaves of our bed to clean up the water in the den. My leaf basket was tipped over, so I gathered the scattered Oran berries and put them back. In the past it would be very difficult to do things when on my own in the middle of the night because it was very dark in this part of the forest where the canopy was thick, but after training with Hickory, I could use my own grass energy for light.

I was dumping the soaked leaves in a pile outside the den when Spruce came home. "What are you doing awake, dear?" Spruce asked.

"I got woken up by a raider," I said.

His ears shot up and his eyes widened. "What?! Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, but the den got flooded and the bed is ruined."

"Who was it?" he demanded.

"It was a Simipour," I said.

"A Simipour," he grumbled. "I know who you're talking about."

"Why didn't you catch him on your night watch? You're supposed to be the night guard," I criticized him. "You're supposed to keep everyone safe at night, but I still got attacked!"

Spruce flinched as I said that to him.

"Maybe if you were here with me, you could've protect me. But no, you have to go out on your _duty_ , and seems like you failed that too!" I continued.

"I promise I'll protect you next time," he said.

"How are you going to protect me if you're not here?" I questioned him harshly.

"I'll… I'll quit the night watch, so that I can stay with you and protect you. You're more important than everything else. I'll quit the night watch… for you."

That caught my attention. _He said he would quit before, but he didn't actually do it. Will he really quit this time?_ As I was thinking about what he said, I noticed that the sun was rising, signifying a new day. A ray of sunlight filtered through the thick canopy of the forest and landed on my leaf-like tail.

"No, you don't have to quit the night watch," I decided, "because I don't want your protection anymore."


	18. Chapter 18

Hickory's POV

 _We were finally getting close, but then Spruce had to come back…_

I went to Maple's garden to see if she was available today. She probably was since it was Spruce's night shift. I spotted her biting large leaves off of her Custap plant with her maw. "Hey Maple! What're you up to?"

"I'm gathering leaves for a new bed," she said after placing the leaf in her maw in the pile of leaves by her side.

"I'll help you out," I offered.

"That'd be great! Thanks a bunch," she said smile.

"Always happy to help you," I said proudly, chomping down on the stem of a broad leaf with my maw. It took a bit of effort, and unfortunately the leaf tasted nothing like the sweet berry that the plant was known for, even though it smelled good. After the struggle of breaking off one leaf, I came up with a better idea.

"Maple, try cutting leaves off with leaf blade," I instructed. "I'll hold the leaf so you can chop it off."

"Okay, I'll try that," she said. I sat down and grasped a leaf with two paws, pulling it away from the plant. Maple's tail glowed green and turned hard and sharp. She slashed downward, severing the leaf from the plant with ease. I grabbed another good leaf and she cut it off, and so on.

Pretty soon there was a sizeable pile of broad leaves. "Hey, that worked great! You're the best," Maple said cheerfully, making me blush slightly.

Once we had enough leaves, I followed Maple into the forest. Unfortunately I had to carry the leaves in my maw because the stems were too thin to grasp with my tail. _Wait, what if Spruce is at their den? It might get a bit awkward..._

"We're here," said Maple.

That was fast; we were practically right at the edge of the field. I looked around, and it didn't look like we were at Maple's den. There was an empty den to my right and a noticeable red-leaved tree to my left. There was plenty of sunlight filtering through the canopy. "This isn't your den," I stated.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you, I'm moving here," she said.

"Why are you moving?" I immediately asked.

"Well… I'm uh, leaving Spruce. I don't want to stay with him anymore…" Maple quietly answered.

I couldn't help but smile, feeling a comforting warmth inside. "Really? That's great!" I blurted out. She looked at me oddly. "I-I mean, I didn't really think you two got along well, so good for you," I hastily tried to explain.

"Yeah… I realized I didn't really love him anymore… More like I loved the protection he gave me from raiders, but since you taught me how to fight them, I don't need Spruce anymore. It could've worked out of it wasn't for his stupid night watch…" she remarked.

 _Yes! Now I can have Maple!_

 _No, don't think like that. Don't be like the other Guard members._

"I left him this morning," Maple continued. I realized that I was still smiling straight at Maple, so I did my best to naturally shift it into a neutral expression. "Here's my new den, right next to the garden. It's actually my old den! I was so glad no one was occupying it when I came by this morning."

Now that she mentioned it, I definitely recognized the place from when I was an Eevee. The red leaved Maple tree right beside the entrance brought back memories of Maple and me when we were young. We used to get sweet, sticky sap out of the trunk to eat with our berries.

"I remember that Maple tree," I said.

"Hmm, it could use a bit of growing, don't you think?" She faced the tree and concentrated. A few moments later, I saw the branches and leaves grow. I grinned, amazed at my friend's powers, the powers that I helped her discover.

"If you don't mind, please tell me more about why you left Spruce," I requested, obviously being quite interested in the subject.

"You know how Spruce saved me from the first raider attack," she said. I nodded. "When we first got together, Spruce promised he would protect me. I liked him because he kept me safe and sound from The Raiders. I was a little upset when he started doing the night watch, but he was still keeping me safe by doing the night watch."

"Then there was that time I got attacked during the day while Spruce was sleeping. You remember, right? You were the one who saved me that time," she said.

"Yeah, I remember," I said.

"Spruce said he was going to quit the night watch to protect me, but he didn't quit. I also asked him to teach me how to protect myself, but he didn't want to do that either, insisting on protecting me himself. I wasn't really happy with him anymore, and now that you taught me how to fight, I don't need Spruce's protection anymore. I guess I only liked him because he kept me safe… Thanks again for saving me that time and for teaching me how to protect myself," she said to me. "If it weren't for you, I would still be stuck with Spruce."

"Of course! Anything to help you out," I told her with a smile. "So why'd you leave Spruce today and not earlier?" I asked.

"What got me to leave happened last night. Spruce was on night watch, like always, and that Simipour, Squash, attacked me in the middle of the night. I wasn't hurt, but the den got flooded and the bed was destroyed. As I started cleaning up, I realized that Spruce promised to protect me, and broke his promise. I got angry at him, told him I didn't want to stay with him anymore, and left."

It was a dream come true to hear Maple say that she didn't love Spruce.

* * *

As I walked home in the fading sunlight, I was thinking about when I should tell Maple my feelings when suddenly a figure slammed into my side. "Oof!" I cried out from the surprise attack, getting knocked down to the ground. As it was quite dark, it was hard to tell who had attacked me, though the pokémon appeared to be yellow. I shot some fire in the direction of the attacker, and to my surprise, it was an Umbreon - Spruce!

Spruce came charging at me again, head first. "Spruce! I'm Hickory! I'm not a raider!" I yelled.

I sprang out of the way to avoid getting smashed by his powerful tackle. He slowed down, spun on his paw, and unleashed a mass of black energy - dark pulse. I dodged again with ease. Right behind the dark pulse, Spruce came at me with another tackle, probably double edge actually. I was barely able to avoid his body this time.

"Dude, what's your problem?!" I yelled at the Umbreon.

"You're my problem!" he shouted back.

He fired another dark pulse at me. I countered with my own flamethrower. Our attacks collided in the air, then my flames shot straight through his dark pulse, my attack breaking his attack apart as it went towards him. He barely avoid getting hit by my superior ranged attack. Some of my flames caught on to nearby trees, lighting up the area.

"What're you talking about?!" I yelled.

"My mate abandoned me, and it's all your fault!" he accused.

He came running at me again. I used flamethrower again, but he was anticipating it and leaped to the side, continuing to charge at me, a small white trail emitting off of his body to show off the strength of double edge. I leaped to the side to avoid getting slammed by his dangerous move. As he slowed and turned around, I was in the right position to tackle him. I sprang off of my hind legs with my forelegs towards him. Unfortunately, he also sprang at me, and the result of the collision was me flying off into the air, my front legs in pain from the impact. I hastily shifted my weight to land on my paws.

"I saw you with Maple today. You told her to leave me, didn't you? Didn't you?!" he yelled.

"Why would I tell her to do that? She left because she didn't like you anymore, it's as simple as that," I said, trying to stay calm.

"We were both happy together until you showed up and started talking to her!"

"Why couldn't I talk to her? I've known her since we were Eevees," I said.

Spruce came at me again, his face contorted in anger. His face turned even more menacing as his teeth elongated and glowed bright white. I used iron tail, spinning around and sending my tail towards him. His teeth chomped down on my solid, glowing white tail, then he let go, retreating back a few steps.

"It was my job to fight for her, but then you had to teach her how to fight!"

"Yeah, because you weren't protecting her well," I accused. "She's gotten attacked _three times_ and you weren't there to protect her. It's not hard to see why she left you!"

Spruce suddenly disappeared. _What did he do?!_ I thought frantically, until I realized a split second later that it must be feint attack. I had no idea where he would be coming from and thus I couldn't dodge. I used flame charge in order to engulf my body with flames and braced myself. Spruce slammed hard into my side, sending me into the air again. Despite the aching pain from the impact, I once again landed on my paws. Spruce used feint attack again, but this time I could spot him approaching me due to the flames on his fur giving out a blur of light. The speed from flame charge allowed me to avoid his feint attack. I slammed into him from behind with my flame cloaked body. Spruce landed on the ground and rolled a couple of times to smother the flames.

"It's your fault she's been getting attacked," I added, making Spruce even angrier. "The raiders hate you, so they've been attacking Maple to try and hurt you. Not only have you not protected her, you were putting her into more danger as well."

"SHUT UP! It's all your fault!"

"No, it's your fault! Maybe you should've spent more time with her, instead of always doing the night watch, which you should be doing right now, by the way, not fighting me!"

Spruce came charging at me head on, his face contorted in rage. Despite the threatening display, I kept calm on the inside. The moment he was about to collide with me, I rolled onto my back, thrust my four paws into his stomach, and flung him behind me. He let out a yell as he went flying uncontrollably into a tree. I smiled as I heard his body slam into the tree, although that was a pretty evil thing to do.

If he were a raider, I would turn around and finish him off for good with a fire blast, but of course I wasn't going to do that to our night guard. I went around and extinguished any stray flames on the trees by smothering them with my thick, fluffy tail, which made the area turn dark again. I quickly departed the scene before Spruce tried to continue the battle. _I hope he doesn't come and attack me in the middle of the night,_ I thought as I entered my den.

Now that the thrill of the battle was over, I had to acknowledge my aching body from the fight. I grinned as I spotted a basket of Oran berries behind my bed, which Maple had made for me in case of an emergency raider attack. _Although this attack wasn't by a raider,_ I thought as I took a berry.

Why did Spruce attack me? He seemed to think I'm trying to steal his mate. Which I guess is kind of true... I did teach Maple how to fight so that she's not stuck with Spruce. In fact, The Raiders might not even attack Maple anymore if she's not Spruce's mate anymore. Spruce definitely won't be the friendliest with me anymore, but whatever, I can handle Spruce. The only thing now is… would Maple feel the same way towards me as I feel towards her? I'll find out soon enough.


	19. Chapter 19

Maple's POV

Rays of light woke me up, coming through the entrance of my den and landing on my curled up form on my new bed. I yawned, stretched, and went outside. _Ah, it's so nice and bright out!_ I thought as I exited my den, entering the abundant sunlight coming through the thin layer of leaves above. The sunlight landing on my leaves and fur felt very refreshing, washing away any sleepiness and replacing it with energy and excitement.

I picked a few Figy berries to eat then did some usual garden maintenance. After I left a few newly created berry baskets in my den, I spotted my Arcanine friend passing by. "Hey Cassie!" I called.

"Hey Maple!" Cassie greeted. "Isn't this your old den?" she recalled.

"Yup, I've moved back here," I explained.

"What prompted you and Spruce to move?" she asked.

An awkward feeling passed through me as I realized I would have to tell everyone what happened. "Well, actually… I decided to leave Spruce and live on my own…"

Cassie seemed shocked for a moment, but then her expression changed to a more concerned look. "Why's that?" she asked softly.

"Well, I-I don't really like him anymore. He didn't want to spend time with me, always on his night watch. That meant he slept during the day. And he promised again and again that he would protect me, but he was never there when I needed him because he was either asleep or out on the campaign."

"Will you be alright on your own?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me at all," I said with a cheerful smile. "I'm perfectly fine. In fact, I love being back at my own den, because it's truly my own. And it's so bright and sunny here, unlike where Spruce's den was. I don't regret my decision one bit."

She nodded understandably. "Well, you'll find someone else who'll be better," she assured. I frowned. _Did I_ need _a male to be with?_ "Or you'll be perfectly happy on your own, that's fine too, I guess," she added as an afterthought.

"We'll see what happens, but whatever happens, I'll be fine," I assured.

"Good. Well, I'm off to find my boys," Cassie said. "They woke me up early in the morning saying they wanted to play in the field. I told them to go ahead and I'll find them later. Now I can't find them…"

"If I find them, I'll bring them to your den," I said.

"That'd be great, thanks!" she said, trotting off.

I headed back to my garden with checking on my Custap plant in mind. I navigated through my garden to the middle where my magnificent blooming Custap plant was. Empowered by the strong sunlight coming down on my leaves, I used synthesis to channel my grass energy into the plant. _It's really amazing how this power that I've been using to grow plants all this time can be used to protect myself,_ I thought as I watched the broad leaves along the bottom glow green and grow outwards.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"

"AAAHHH!"

I shrieked as two small figures leapt out from beneath my Custap plant, two little Growlithes. "What were you two doing under there?!" I exclaimed.

"Hiding from mom…"

"Nothing…"

* * *

After I successfully returned the troublesome Growlithe duo to their parents, I decided to stop by Hickory's den to see what he was up to. To my surprise and exasperation, he was asleep on his leaf bed. Of course my initial thought was that he was being lazy and not getting out of bed, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that he looked a bit beat up and injured for some reason. He was probably sleeping all the way until now in order to heal up. Still though, I decided that the hour was too late for him to still be sleeping, what with such a beautiful sunny day, so I shook him awake.

"Unh… Maple? Hey… you look really nice today… just like in my dream…" he randomly muttered. The way he was totally out of it was not a good sign.

"Uh, yeah… must be the sunny day? Hey, is something the matter with you?" I asked, concerned.

He shook his head a bit, yawned, got up, stretched, and sat down on his bed. "Ugh, sorry Maple. Did you say something? I wasn't paying attention. Early morning grogginess."

Despite my concern, I laughed. "Hickory, it's already around noon! You overslept, like, a lot."

"Seriously? Heh, that's not good I guess…"

"Did you get into a fight with a raider or something?" I asked, addressing his apparent injuries.

"I did have a fight last night, but it wasn't a raider," he answered after a moment of thought. "It was Spruce."

"Oh, you guys were having some sort of practice battle?" I asked.

"Uh, no, it was, like, an actual fight."

"What do you mean?"

"I was walking home from your den last night, and Spruce suddenly attacked me. I thought he was mistaking me for a raider or something, but he was attacking me on purpose."

Weren't Hickory and Spruce teammates on The Guard? I thought confusedly. "Why did he want to fight you?"

"Well... I think he was really angry after you left him," Hickory said. I didn't see how that had to do with anything.

"So... He randomly attacked you because he was mad?"

"I-I think... Well he said it was my fault that you left him or something like that..." Hickory explained.

"I can understand Spruce being mad, but why would he think you had anything to do with me leaving him?"

"I think Spruce is under the impression that I told you to leave him or something like that. That's why he attacked me," Hickory brought up.

"Well that's not true! Why would he think that?" I said. Hickory shrugged. Now I felt really bad that Hickory got attacked because of me. "I'm sorry, it's my fault Spruce attacked you for no reason…"

"Hey, it's not a big deal, you don't have to worry about it!" Hickory said with a positive change in tone. "I handled him with ease, and I'm not that injured. Don't feel guilty or anything like that."

"Want me to get you some Oran berries?" I offered.

"That'd be amazing, thanks!" he said.

"No problem," I said, heading off to my garden. _It's the least I can do after Hickory got attacked because of me..._

* * *

I came back with the berries, we talked for a while, then Hickory decided he wanted to rest for the rest of the day to better heal the injuries. I decided to take a walk around the forest. I hadn't checked of the rest of the forest in a while.

I came across a small pond with some Magikarp swimming around in it. My parents told me about how those little Magikarp might evolve into a giant Gyarados one day. I didn't see how they would survive if they were as big as the pond though. I knew that near the pond was Hazel's den. I passed by, but the Herdier and Lillipup weren't home at the moment. I saw some other forest pokémon. A few knew me as the Leafeon who grew the garden.

Eventually I came across a vaguely familiar large tree. I recalled that it was Ariel the Pidgeot's tree. Scanning the upper leaves and branches, I couldn't see any trace of a pokémon living here anymore. Ariel had really left after that attack.

Returning to the field, I maintained my garden a little, then relaxed in the soft grass, enjoying the sunny day.

Around sunset, someone came me. "Hey Maple," said the familiar masculine voice.

"Hi Spruce," I said politely, although I wasn't glad to encounter him at all.

"What've you been up to, dear?" he asked, coming up closer to me.

"I'm not your 'dear' anymore," I said quietly.

"I still consider you my 'dear,'" he said.

I looked him in the eye. "Then you better forget about me," I suggested.

"Don't you miss me?" he asked.

"Not really… I mean, so far we've had the same level of togetherness than before I left," I remarked, making him frown.

"Isn't it lame to be alone? I feel that way," he told me.

"I'm totally fine with living on my own," I disagreed, "but if you're so desperate to be with someone, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding a new mate."

"But I want you… you're the most beautiful mate in the forest…"

 _If that's the reason why he likes me, I do not find that comment flattering at all. Besides, I'm certainly not the most attractive female around here._ Taking a good look at him, I noticed he had a visible bruise on his left side. "What's with that bruise you have there?" I inquired.

"Oh, this? That's uh, a mark of my valiant struggle against a raider last night!" he said.

"Oh really? Are you sure that's not a mark of your fight with Hickory?"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"You and Hickory are supposed to be teammates working together against The Raiders, yet last night you attacked him. I saw him this morning, and he was injured."

"The truth is we were both attacked by raiders last night, and we fought them off together," Spruce explained. "I think Hickory is just trying to make me look bad by claiming that I attacked him."

 _That actually seems like a reasonable explanation, but…_ "Why would Hickory want to make you look bad?" I asked.

"Because he wants to steal something from me," Spruce claimed, a hint of a growl in his speech. "Actually, he already some something from me."

"What did he steal from you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Spruce said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said.

"He stole you from me!" Spruce exclaimed.

I was confused by that statement. _I guess he means 'me' as in 'his mate,' but why did Spruce think Hickory 'stole' me when I left on my own?_

"Hickory was always trying to spend time with you, doing everything for you, so that you would leave me and be with him!" Spruce exclaimed. "He's the reason you left me! That's why I attacked him!"

 _Hmm… if that's the way Spruce thinks, I guess I can understand why he wanted to attack Hickory. But I still don't agree with him. I didn't leave Spruce to be with Hickory, I left Spruce because he sucked._

"So... you're blaming Hickory for me leaving you, instead of realizing that you suck as a mate?" Spruce's face turned livid. "You failed to protect me, refused to teach me how to protect myself, were often on night watch, and ditched me to go off on a campaign. Meanwhile, Hickory hangs out with me and taught me how to fight, and he's only my friend!"

Spruce suddenly disappeared into a blur. I stood there confused when a moment later something slammed into my right side with huge force. I let out a surprised cry upon impact, being sent into the air for less than a second before my left side smacked into the ground hard, my body painfully skidding along the ground for a foot, crushing the grass and flowers. I let out a light groan as I felt the pain of the impacts in both of my sides.

As soon as I regained myself, I got back up and saw Spruce; I caught a glimpse of his wide-eyed expression as he turned away. I couldn't let Spruce think he could attack me and get away with it. As I stood back up, I gathered my energy in front of me, formed a big green energy ball, and fired it at him. My attack slammed into his side, knocking him down to the ground, although it wasn't as strong as his attack on me.

He had a very angry expression as he got up. "Apologize for hitting me," I demanded as I approached him. He stared at me hard for a second before turning away. "Right now, you're reminding me of that Luxray," I accused.

He stopped in his tracks. "What do you mean?!" he demanded, turning back to face me.

"Attacking me for no reason!"

"You were the one who insulted me!"

Before I knew it, I was charging towards Spruce with my leaf blade ready and he was charging at me with his elongated fangs bared. Our attacks collided with a loud noise, then we both recoiled back. Then he disappeared into a blur again. I knew what was coming but didn't know how to prevent it. I felt Spruce slam into my side again, although this time I was able to land on my paws.

 _What would Hickory do against that attack?_ I thought. Then I came up with an idea. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Spruce start the same attack again. I quickly used leaf blade and spun around. A second later, I felt him collide with me. I was knocked over and tumbled a bit on the ground, but I also heard Spruce let out a cry of alarm from getting hit by my leaf blade.

After he recovered, he noticed me and started running towards my position head on, a streak of white trailing behind him. As I was on the ground, I decided to try to pull off Hickory's trick. Right before Spruce would have collided with me, I rolled onto my back and extended my four paws upward, making contact with his body and flinging him overhead. He collided with the ground head first, his high speed causing him to skid and tumble along the grass.

I should've gotten up right away, but I just lied there in the grass, breathing heavily. The blows from Spruce's attacks were stinging at my sides. I heard Spruce get up, groaning. I struggled and forced myself to get back up. Spruce let out a growl. I snapped my head in his direction, but thankfully he was departing the scene, staggering back into the forest.

 _I sure hope it's not going to be like this forever… I hope we can get along somehow. I don't want to have to fight Spruce ever again…_

As I walked back towards my den, I spotted three Mightyenas out of the corner of my eye. "I just saw Spruce get beaten up by his mate! Spruce lost a fight with a female! Can you believe it?" I heard one of them tell the other two. "Let's spread the news!"


	20. Chapter 20

Hickory's POV

"I bet I can beat you in a race!" Hooves claimed.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Well... " He took a moment to come up with an answer, not expecting my question. "I'm good at races!" he finally said.

"Okay, but I'm good at races too," I said. "Where do you want to race to?"

"Hmm… let's go from here to the small pond on the other side of the forest," he decided.

"Okay, first to touch the water wins. Let's count down together." We faced the general direction of our finish point and stood next to each other, ready to sprint.

"3… 2… 1… GO!"

Hooves shot forward like a thunderbolt… or flamethrower, actually. Hooves's long legs launched off of the ground faster than a Fletchling could flap its wings. I calmly trailed behind him, watching him weave through the trees and following his path. He wasn't _that_ much faster than me, but as the race went on he pulled further and further ahead. Eventually his wild flaming mane and tail were out of my sights.

I ran forward, dodged left, and dodged right, continuing in the general direction of the goal, keeping a steady pace in order to finish the race, My plan being to let him tire out then pass him. On second thought, though, that probably wasn't going to happen, knowing Hooves. I knew he was better at races than me. _I guess I'll switch to plan B._

I activated my fiery energy and directed it into my legs, which made flames erupt around my ankles. Using the power of flame charge, I could run about one and a half times faster. The consequence of running faster through a forest was the increased difficulty of dodging the trees, but I managed well enough with my skills.

The area around me abruptly turned bright as I left the trees and entered the field. I spotted Hooves already two thirds of the way across the field. With no trees in the way, I charged forward recklessly.

"Bye Hooves!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I got to his side. We reentered the forest, me swerving to the left of a large tree and him swerving to the right. It was his turn to trail behind me as I flame charged my way towards the pond. I took a glance back to see how far ahead I was, at the risk of nearly colliding with a tree; I was pretty sure some fire from one of my legs caught onto that tree. One collision would've costed me the whole race. Even with the energy from flame charge, I was starting to tire and slow down. I was relieved when I spotted the slightly murky water of our finish line. Stopping my flame charge, I slowed to a stop at the pond's edge, dunked my paw into the water, and collapsed onto the grass beside the pond.

I had taken one large breath of air and was observing the Magikarp when Hooves came flying towards my position at absolute top speed. "Hooves, slow down!" I immediately yelled. He tried slowing down, but was already too close. He tried to turn, but couldn't turn in time either.

"Aaaaah!" Hooves screamed as he tumbled into the pond, his voice becoming distorted as his head went under the water. As he had fallen in right beside me, I got soaked by his splash. I groaned; I hated the sensation of water pounding on me. I was already tired from the run, so I was really annoyed to have to shake the water out of my pelt.

Hooves's head surfaced, gasping for air. I assumed he disliked getting drenched as much as I did, so his situation was way worse then mine. Therefore, I restrained myself from laughing at him, although a few snickers did come out. He crawled his way out of the pond and vigorously shook his body to get the water out. Luckily for him, his fur was short and not difficult to get the water out of, unlike my thick fluffy pelt. After a few moments, the flames on his mane, tail, and ankles reignited.

"So… what were you saying earlier about beating me in a race?" I said, grinning widely.

"You gotta teach me that move you were using," Hooves requested.

"But if I teach you my secret, I'll never beat you in a race again," I told him. "Besides, how will you stop yourself from falling into the pond if you're going even faster?" I pointed out with a laugh.

"I just won't race with the pond as the finish line," he argued. "Now teach me, senpai!"

"The move is called flame charge. All you need to do is send your fire power into your legs. Flames will ignite and you'll be able to run faster and for longer. It helps in battle for dodging quicker and attacking faster. And it lets me beat you in a race!"

The flames on Hooves's ankles suddenly exploded in size, and Hooves zoomed forward faster than one could blink. I was surprised he got it on the first try, but then again, he is a Rapidash. _There goes anyone's chances of beating Hooves in a race ever again…_ I thought, lying back down beside the pond.

"Haha, this is amazing!" Hooves exclaimed upon returning to me. "Thanks Hickory!"

"How do you still have the energy to run after racing across the forest and falling into the pond?!" I exclaimed.

"I can run all day!" he responded. _I guess that's just what Rapidashes are all about,_ I figured. Hooves started running in circles, the large flames causing him to turn into an orange blur. _Nah, Hooves is a special case._

We started walking, Hooves running circles around me. I tolerated his show-off-y display for a while, until I decided to stick a paw out.

"Argh!" Hooves yelled as his hoof hit my leg and missed the ground, sending him tumbling down along the ground. This time I did laugh at him. He scowled at me.

"You didn't see that coming?" I said between laughs.

"I was hoping you would be nice enough and not trip me…" he said. After that, he just walked, the flames dying down as he stopped using his newfound move.

"Hey you two!" a voice called. I looked towards the voice and saw a Mightyena.

"What's up, Eric?!" Hooves said loudly and enthusiastically.

"Dude, I'm Adam!" the Mightyena retorted.

"Oh, sorry man," Hooves said.

"Anyway, have you guys heard the news?" Adam asked excitedly.

"Yeah, Gumshoos finally finished building his mud wall, then Ludicolo came by and just knocked it all down!" Hooves said.

"Whoa, really? I gotta tell my buddies that! But no, that's not what I have to tell you," said Adam. I rolled my eyes at this pointless gossip.

"Well what do you have?" Hooves asked.

"Last evening I saw Spruce lose a fight against his mate!"

"What?!" I immediately said, my attention caught. Adam and Hooves turned towards me, as if they forgot I was here. "Can you explain?" I requested.

"Well, I was walking past the field when I heard fighting. Spruce and his mate were fighting with each other!"

"Do you mean physically fighting?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah! It was pretty intense too!" said Adam.

"How intense are we talking about here?" I asked.

"They were going all out, man!" Spruce was doing this thing where he would attack so fast you couldn't see him, and his mate was like, turning her tail into a sword or something."

 _So Maple got into a fight with Spruce… I sure hope she's alright. I bet Spruce wouldn't go_ all out _against Maple like he did with me… at least I hope._

"And you said Spruce's mate beat him?" I asked.

"Yeah! She like did this ridiculous trick where Spruce was running at her and she rolled over and somehow like, threw him over her head and into the ground! Then Spruce gave up and ran away! I'd call that a victory," the Mightyena explained.

I smiled seeing that Maple was using our training to full potential, although Spruce wasn't the intended target. "Do you know why they were fighting?" I asked.

"Nope, but who cares! Spruce lost a fight to his mate! I'm gotta go now, gotta spread the news! You'll tell others, right?" Adam commanded, heading off.

"Sure thing!" Hooves agreed. I certainly didn't agree though.

"Hooves, don't start going around telling pokémon about that. Do you know how mad Spruce will be?"

"But this is top tier news!" Hooves argued. "Spruce lost a fight to his mate! Ha!"

"But we don't even know why they were fighting. Oh, and by the way, they're not even mates anymore. Malpe left Spruce a couple days ago," I told Hooves.

"What?! Spruce was ditched by his mate? Amazing! Two pieces of top tier news in one!" Hooves babbled ecstatically.

I groaned. "Hooves, this is someone's private business. It's very rude to go flame charging around spreading stories like this," I told him.

"Flame charging around? That's a perfect idea! I'll get the news around one and a half times as fast! Thanks Hickory!" Flames erupted around Hooves's legs, and he was off.

"No Hooves, please don't!" I hollered. I used flame charge and pursued him. _There goes any chance of being friends with Spruce, he'll hate me forever after this…_ I thought sadly.

"Hey Cedar! Guess what!" I heard Hooves yell from ahead.

"...What?" I heard Cedar ask Hooves as I arrived. The Herdier looked startled and irritated.

"Spruce's mate abandoned him, AND Spruce lost a fight against her!" Hooves reported, speaking as if it were raining Figy berries or something.

"...Okay, why are you telling me this?" Cedar asked flatly.

"Isn't that exciting?" Hooves said in a convincing way.

"Don't go around spreading gossip like that," Cedar told the crazy Rapidash.

"Yeah Hooves, don't go around spreading gossip like that!" I repeated, laughing hard.

"You two are just the wrong audience," Hooves insisted. "Anyway… what're you up to, Cedar?" Hooves asked.

"Um… nothing much…" he answered quietly.

"Really now? Well why were you staring at that den?" Hooves questioned.

I looked ahead and noticed an ordinary looking den. Looking at Cedar, I saw him struggling to explain.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's Hazel's den," Hooves pointed out.

"Yeah... it is," Cedar confirmed. "I wanted to play with Willow but… I-I don't think Hazel will let me…" he sighed.

 _Poor Willow, having to grow up with two parents that hate each other…_ It was hard to imagine that Cedar and Hazel loved each other enough to have a kid together, and now they can't even look at each other. _But that'll never happen between Maple and me,_ I thought.

"Just march into the den and ask Willow if she wants to hand out with her dad for the day! Shouldn't be hard," Hooves suggested.

"And how do I get Hazel to agree?"

"If she tries to interfere, say, 'Tough luck! Willow is my daughter too!'" Hooves instructed. That sounded like a terrible idea to me.

"No way!" Cedar said. "I can't just barge past Hazel. I can't be rude to her every time I want to see Willow. I have to get along with her eventually…"

Suddenly there was a loud snap and some rustling of bushes across from Hazel's den, to the right of us. Hooves sprang toward the sound without warning. "Hey! Wanna hear some news?!" Hooves called out at the top of his lungs.

"What is with Hooves today?" Cedar remarked. "He's normally not _this_ crazy."

"He's gone Spindas with gossip," I deduced. Wanting to see the random pokémon's reaction to Hooves and his news, Cedar and I followed after the wild Rapidash.

"I don't care," I heard the stranger say as I got close. I went around the obscuring bush and was met by a disappointed Hooves. Then I spotted the stranger, who was quickly walking away. My eyes widened as I realized that it was no stranger.

"Squash!" I exclaimed.

The Simipour turned his head slightly, saw me, then made a run for it. "Guys, he's a raider! Let's get him!" I told Hooves and Cedar as I used flame charge and sprinted after Squash. Hooves caught up to me and we flame charged side by side, quickly reaching Squash. The Simipour glanced back, saw how close we were, and launched a hydro pump out of his tail. Hooves and I both hopped to the sides, avoiding the attack "with style," as Hooves would put it.

Hooves engulfed his whole body in flames and rammed into Squash. I gathered flames into my muzzle and unleashed a flamethrower at Squash. I knew fire attacks weren't that good against a water type like Squash, but I didn't have much else to combat water types, unless a certain someone was with me.

Squash was down on the ground, but he started spewing out a wave of water from his mouth and tail, forcing Hooves and me to retreat. Squash stood back up, but then Cedar came out of nowhere and smashed into Squash, sending the Simipour flying. Squash collided with a tree with a loud _thunk_ and fainted, his body slumping onto the ground.

 _Fighting in a forest seems to be all about who collides with a tree first,_ I realized, making sure to keep that in mind for next time.

"Whoa Cedar, that was incredible!" Hooves praised.

"Thanks," Cedar said humbly. _I bet if Hooves were praised the same way, his response would be something like, "That's right!" with a bow._

"Hickory, you're sure this guy's a raider? I sure hope we didn't just beat up some random guy," Cedar said.

"Yes, he is. Remember I told you guys about my troubles with Squash while you guys were out on the campaign?"

"Ah, yes, I remember," said Cedar. "Wait a minute, didn't we first hear him in the bushes outside Hazel's den?" Cedar recalled. "He must've been spying on Hazel and Willow!"

"Why would he be doing that?" Hooves questioned.

"Um… it's possible that The Raiders are planning… to… a-attack Hazel sometime soon…" I hesitantly predicted.

"What makes you think that?" Cedar asked, worry evident in his tone.

"Remember, The Raiders don't attack just any random pokémon, they attack _us_ and the pokémon close to us. They want to hurt us."

"I won't let those raiders touch my daughter!" Cedar exclaimed.

"Why do The Raiders hate us?" Hooves questioned.

"That's what I want to know too. When Squash wakes up, let's get all the answers out of him," I suggested.

"Yeah, let's squeeze the truth out of Squash!" said Hooves.

We propped Squash up against the tree he had collided with so that he could sit comfortably. Hooves suggested that we tie Squash to the tree using his tail so that he couldn't run or attack us, but I shot that idea down, figuring it would be too nasty to do that then expect answers out of Squash.

"Hello Squash, how are you?" I asked when Squash shifted and opened his eyes.

Squash't eyes darted from Cedar, to Hooves, then finally to me. "I'm scared," Squash whimpered quietly.

I smiled, seeing as this interrogation wouldn't be as difficult as I thought. _Or he might be pulling another bluff,_ I reasoned, making a mental note to keep my guard up no matter what.

"Notice how you're relatively unscathed. We don't want to hurt you, we just want some answers from you. After we get all the info we need, you may go. Understood?" I told the captive Simipour, who nodded.

"Alright, first question. What's your favorite berry and why is it your favorite?"

"Uh…" Squash looked confused, and so did Cedar and Hooves. After a moment of thought, Squash said, "Iapapa berries, because they're watery."

I was satisfied with his honesty, so I moved on to the real question. "Thank you for your honesty. Alright, so how come you guys, The Raiders, hate us and attack us? What's the reason?"

Squash was silent. I waited for a few moments, then said, "In case you were wondering, you're not going anywhere until I have the reason why you hate us and attack us."

"I-I don't have anything against you, Splint and the others are the ones that hate you guys," Squash said.

"And the reason is…?"

"Y-you guys killed their friend…" Squash quietly explained. Cedar frowned hard and Hooves was taken aback. _That's what I heard the Luxray say before,_ I thought.

"Who is this friend that you say we killed?" I asked.

"N-not you… it was the Talonflame, Herdier, and Umbreon," Squash said.

"I've never killed anyone in my life!" Cedar immediately yelled, staring down at Squash angrily. Squash flinched.

"Calm down, Cedar. Who is the pokémon you claim we killed?" I asked.

"His name was Spine, a Persian," Squash answered meekly, eying Cedar warily.

"I remember a Persian, he came to attack me and my mate," Cedar said. "But I never killed him!" he repeated.

"Is it true that Spine came to our forest and attacked Cedar and his mate?" I asked.

"Y-yeah, he said that he did," Squash answered.

"So why did Spine do that?" I asked.

"Um… I remember a long time ago, when Spine came back home to our forest one day, he said he was hanging out with a beautiful Herdier... and… and another Herdier came and beat him up," Squash explained, eying Cedar cautiously.

"Well before you go on, let me say that Spine was _not_ hanging with Hazel, Spine was _harassing_ her," Cedar accused harshly.

 _I wonder how Squash will respond to that,_ I thought.

"Yeah, he probably was," Squash surprisingly agreed. "I'd imagine if Spine saw a beautiful female that caught his fancy, he would chase her to no end."

"So what happened next?" I asked, prompting Squash to continue. Now that I was getting an explanation, I was feeling a bit excited on the inside.

"Spine wanted us all to go with him to this forest to beat up the Herdier who beat him up. We didn't want to go along with him though. So over the next few months, Spine would travel from our home forest all the way here a couple times in order to try and claim what was 'rightfully his.'"

"How was Hazel 'rightfully his?'" Cedar exclaimed.

"His dad always told him to chase the girl of his dreams, and not let some other guy steal her," Squash said. "Eventually Spine convinced Splint to follow him to this forest."

"Splint is the Luxray, correct?" I asked.

"Yeah, although he was still a Luxio at the time. I personally didn't really know Spine or Splint much, but everyone knew they were best pals."

That struck me as odd; if Squash isn't friends with the Luxray or the Persian, why was he even here? I made a mental note to ask later if I didn't find out.

"So Spine and Splint went off, and a week or so later… Splint came back, and n-no Spine. Splint said y-you guys... k-killed him," Squash said, faltering beneath Cedar's gaze.

"Hold it! I'm telling you right now that I did not kill anyone! I remember fighting the Persian with Falc and Spruce, but we did NOT kill him!" Cedar angrily yelled, making Squash tense up.

I put a paw on Cedar and pushed him back slightly. Cedar took a step back and calmed down. "How do you know Spine is dead?" I asked.

"I've never seen Spine since…" Squash said, stating the obvious. "Also, Splint… he told his friends Spine fell into the river and drowned because you guys beat him up so badly."

"Then that's his own fault, not ours!" Cedar yelled, flaring up again. "We didn't kill Spine, it was his own fault for picking a fight with us, and then drowning on his own!"

"I-I'm j-just explaining why Splint and the others hate you guys, l-like you a-asked me to…" Squash whimpered. "I-I don't have anything against you, Spine wasn't my friend…"

 _Ugh, if Cedar keeps intimidating Squash, he might stop talking…_ I thought. "So how did you and all the other raiders get involved?" I asked Squash.

"Splint said we should go back and attack the guys who killed Spine," Squash continued.

Cedar growled at Squash, making the Simipour cower. "We didn't kill-"

"Just let him finish explaining!" I snapped, smacking Cedar with my tail and pushing him back with my paw. Cedar looked down and sighed. "Keep talking, Squash," I demanded.

"Uh, y-yeah, so… the first one to join Splint was my friend Pence, a Pinsir, then my Skuntank friend, Donald. They... asked m-me to join them too, b-but I-I wasn't friends with Splint or Spine so I didn't want to. When they came back after their first attack, they started telling other pokémon in our forest that a gang of pokémon led by a Talonflame beat them up, and they wanted revenge, calling our group The Raiders. A few guys jumped in with them, including me. That's how all the other pokémon got involved."

"So the average pokémon has no idea about Spine," I said.

"Yes," Squash confirmed. "I only know because Donald told me."

"How many raiders are there now?" I asked.

"It's only the four of us... Everyone else quit after you guys came and attacked us in our forest…"

"And where are the other three?"

"They're at home."

"Alright, so what I understand so far is a Persian named Spine drowned in a river, and you guys are blaming us for his death and attacking us for it. Did I get that all correct?" I asked.

"Okay, here's the situation from our point of view. Not only have you guys attacked us, you've also attacked Spruce's former mate, Cedar's former mate, Falc's love interest, and my… love interest too..." _Oh come on! Why did I hesitate on 'my'? Now Hooves is gonna be suspicious…_

"Yeah, Falc's love interest, Ariel, _left our forest_ because of you guys!" Hooves spoke up. "The guy's been the saddest I've ever seen him."

"And you can't justify your attacks by saying you're avenging your Persian friend," Cedar added. "It's his own fault he supposedly drowned, not ours."

"Do you believe my friends killed Spine?" I asked Squash.

"No, it was his own fault," Squash said.

"Do you agree it's unreasonable to attack us and our mates?" I asked. Squash nodded.

"Now that you understand, if we catch you around here doing shady stuff again, you better believe we're not going to treat you nicely again," I said sternly.

"I-I'm not coming back, n-no way…"

"Good. Now, you'll tell your friends not to come back too, won't you? Tell them that we don't want to beat them up, we only want peace, and nothing more."

"Y-yeah, I'll tell them… b-but Splint… he truly believes you guys murdered Spine…"

"Then we're going to have to talk to him," I said.

"I promise I'll do what I can," Squash said.

"Then that's all the info we needed from you," I said. "Anything else, guys?" I asked my companions, who shook their heads. The three of us turned to leave.

"Hickory, um…" Squash spoke up as I was leaving. I turned my head to look back at the Simipour. "I'm sorry I tricked you back then," Squash apologized.

I looked at him squarely. He didn't seem to be lying. "Apology accepted," I said.

The three of us started walking back to Hazel's den. I noticed that Cedar looked uncomfortable. "What's the matter, Cedar?" I asked.

"I-I just… I feel really stupid and guilty right now…" he muttered. "This whole thing is my fault… I was the one who attacked Spine out of nowhere when he was trying to catch Hazel's attention all that time ago… This whole raider thing started all because I started a fight over a female who I can't even look at anymore…"

"But you're not stupid like that anymore! You changed for the better, so cheer up, man!" Hooves said.

"No, now I'm just cowardly and lame," Cedar said flatly.

"Well I know someone nearby doesn't think you're lame!" Hooves said.

"Hi Daddy!" came a slightly squeaky voice from in front of us.

"Hey Willow!" Cedar exclaimed, instantly cheering up. Hooves and I looked at each other and grinned, seeing Cedar cheer up like that.

"Mommy saw you outside our den and said I can go play with you if I wanted!" said Willow.

"Really? That's great! What do you want to do?" Cedar asked.

"Let's go play in the pond," said the Lillipup, and they went off.

"Well, I'm gonna go spread some news!" Hooves said, large flames erupting around his legs.

"No, don't!" I yelled as Hooves sped off. I flame charged after him, but I knew I would never beat him in a race ever again.


	21. Chapter 21

Hello readers! I know it has been a long time :(

I'm sorry for not updating for such a long while. I had been updating pretty consistently within 2-3 weeks for the last 20 chapters, and now suddenly there was a 6 month break. I'm really sorry. I guess I got a little bored of both reading and writing fanfics so I kind of cast it aside. I knew that I didn't want my story to just stop unfinished though. Finally uploading a new chapter of my story gives me a nice feeling. However, I honestly can't promise regular updates anymore. I'm just not as active on this site as I used to be. I will try my best to finish though. After all, I'm only about 3 chapters away from the end.

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Hickory's POV

 _Spruce and I will never be friendly after Hooves went blabbering around the forest humiliating Spruce…_ I sighed. I moped around the forest looking down between my paws.

"Hey Hickory!" I heard someone call. I looked up and smiled, spotting Maple in the field.

"Hey Maple! What're you doing?" I asked.

"Watching the sunset!" She patted the grass next to her with her tail. "Wanna watch with me?"

"Sure!" I happily agreed, trotting over and lying down in the grass next to her. I hadn't noticed the starting sunset until now. The sun was still above the horizon, and the sky had just begun to darken from blue to orange.

I glanced over at Maple, who was peering up at the sky, and remembered the "news" that Hooves was spreading around. I needed to hear what Maple's take on it was. You can never trust those Mightyenas, after all. "Hey, I heard you got into a battle with Spruce," I brought up. "Is it true?"

She turned to face me, looking a little caught off guard. "Uh, yeah… I did… How do you know?" she asked.

"The Mightyenas have been going around tell everyone. I don't know where they got the info from though," I explained.

"Those stupid jerks," Maple muttered, then sighed, looking down.

"Why did you get into a battle with Spruce?" I asked.

"Spruce wanted me back, but I refused of course." She paused, thinking. "I… I guess I started saying some mean stuff to him, because he got really mad and attacked me," she explained.

"And did you beat him up?" I asked excitedly.

"Yeah… I did."

"Nice job!" I complimented. "All that training went into good use, didn't it?"

She sighed. "I didn't want to fight Spruce. I was hoping to get along with him."

"It's not your fault, it's Spruce's fault for attacking you," I told her.

"And now that the Mightyenas have gone around telling everybody, Spruce's reputation will be ruined. I didn't want to ruin his reputation," she continued.

"Again, it's not your fault," I insisted. "You're so sweet. Even sure you left Spruce, you're still looking after him."

"Aw, thanks," she said, smiling at me warmly. I felt a blush creep up on my face so I looked down. I noticed that our paws were next to each other. I held her paw in mine. I looked back up and saw Maple looking back at me with an intrigued expression. _Now's the perfect time to tell her,_ I thought.

The rough pounding paws interrupted the moment. We both jerked our heads to look behind us and spotted a spooked Mightyena.

"What are you doing here?!" Maple growled at the intruder.

"Ah! I-I came to tell you… The Raiders are attacking your garden!"

Maple and I turned our heads towards the other side of the field. Maple gasped. The Skuntank was spitting up poisonous sludge all over some of the plants, the Pinsir was chopping and uprooting them with his sharp pincers, and Splint the Luxray was watching over them with a malicious smirk. _How dare they attack Maple's garden!_ I thought. I glanced over at Maple and saw the angriest expression I had ever seen on her before.

"My garden! Hickory, we have to stop them!" Maple exclaimed.

"Go find the other Guard members and tell them to come help us!" I ordered the Mightyena, who nodded and hurriedly ran off. "C'mon Maple, let's go!"

The two of us immediately rushed across the field side by side. _It's three against two. This is gonna be a rough fight,_ I thought pessimistically, but then I saw the determined expression on Maple's face and became just as determined. As we approached The Raiders, I unleashed a fire blast, scorching the Pinsir and Skuntank. Maple fired an energy ball which smacked the Luxray.

"How dare you attack my garden! Go away!" Maple yelled.

The Pinsir started running towards Maple, head leaning forward and sharp pincers wide open. I immediately used flame charge to sprint in front of Maple. I set my ankles on fire, leaped off of my hind legs, and smashed into the Pinsir's round body with my flaming fore legs, landing on the ground evenly with my four paws.

I heard a _glop_ -like sound to my right, glanced over, and spotted a nasty purple sludge bomb soaring towards me. Being quick on my paws from flame charge, I hopped backwards, avoiding the gnarly glob. I looked to see the Maple smack the sludge bomb with her leaf blade, sending it flying towards the Pinsir. He was just getting up after I had knocked him down when the sludge bomb exploded on him. I grinned at Maple, who smiled back, but then suddenly her smile went away.

Suddenly I felt pain jolt through me as I was struck by a thunderbolt from behind. I gritted my teeth in pain. A flash of green light appeared and went flying behind me, exploding in a blast of green. The thunderbolt stopped and I turned around to face Splint, who was recovering from Maple's energy ball. Without hesitation, I unleashed a flamethrower at him. _This is a battle for Maple's garden. I have to give it my all,_ I told myself.

I spotted the Skuntank coming at me with a night slash, but didn't dodge in time. I hit the ground with a sharp pain in my side, but I rolled over and stood back up. Maple went at the Skuntank with a leaf blade, and he countered with his night slash. Taking careful aim so as to not accidentally hit Maple, I fired a flamethrower at the Skuntank to break the stalemate. After the Skuntank retreated, I quickly ran over to Maple's side.

"You're doing great," I quickly said to her.

"Thanks," she replied.

"They're not working together. As long as we protect each other, we can beat them," I said. She nodded in agreement.

The Pinsir and Skuntank were making their way towards us. I unleashed a flamethrower at them, and Maple added her energy ball to the fire. The Pinsir was hit, but the Skuntank managed to avoid our attacks and attacked with night slash again. Maple charged up her leaf blade and landed an amazing hit on the Skuntank's side, sending him away. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Splint approaching with his fangs bared, so I leaped forward to dodge.

"AH!" I heard Maple scream. I dreadfully whirled around, and saw that Splint had landed his crunch on Maple's left hind leg. I immediately shot an aggressive streak of flame at the enemy, who released Maple's leg to howl in pain instinctively. I continued my assault with an iron tail. I charged toward Splint and spun on my paw to send my iron tail flying at him. He caught my attack with his elongated fangs and attempted to break my strength with his. I gritted my teeth trying to resist his crunch with my iron tail. I heard the signature _glop_ of a sludge bomb headed towards me. I pushed off the ground with my forepaws towards the left and jerked my tail to the right as hard as I could, causing us to spin and put Splint between me and the sludge bomb. The poison attack exploded on my adversary, knocking him away from me.

My tail was released from Splint's crunch, and I thankfully ended my iron tail. That scuffle with Splint was more exhausting than I expected. I saw the Pinsir coming towards me again, but the next moment he was knocked away by Maple's energy ball. I started up a fire blast. He got up and jumped towards me, and I roasted him with my attack. He went flying with a scream of pain and smacked into the ground. _One down. Now this should be a fairer fight,_ I thought.

A sludge bomb was headed towards Maple which she didn't see because she was looking away. I intercepted the sludge bomb with my flamethrower. However, my tiredness caused me to aim poorly. The explosion was a little too close to Maple and she got knocked down. I quickly rushed over, and luckily she got back up right away. "How are you doing?" I asked.

"Tired," she admitted, "but look over there," she said, pointing to my right. I glanced over and saw, to my great relief, a Rapidash and Herdier at the other side of the field, sprinting towards us using flame charge and quick attack respectively, leaving a trail of orange light and white light behind them.

I quickly turned my attention back to my opponents. Maple had fired an energy ball at the approaching Skuntank, who dodged the attack. She readied her leaf blade. I was about to send a flamethrower at the Skuntank if it weren't for what happened next.

I cried out as I was struck by a wicked thunderbolt from Splint. My legs gave way and I crumpled to the ground. I heard the sound of a roaring flamethrower, and the agonizing electric attack stopped. Hooves had arrived and had hit Splint with a flamethrower. Splint used discharge, firing sparks all over. I was struggling to get up when I was smacked by a bolt of electricity and thrown back to the ground. A yell from my side indicated that Hooves was also hit.

When I gathered my senses and looked back, Splint was making a run for the forest. Hooves whizzed past me in pursuit, his legs on fire from flame charge. I looked around for Maple and saw her coming towards me, looking battered. "Hickory! Look out!" she called out. I was confused for a moment, but then my eyes widened as I saw a disgusting purple sludge bomb arcing through the air towards me. I couldn't move anymore though. I was too exhausted.

A bright green glow indicated that Maple was using leaf blade. I was already panicking with the sludge bomb coming towards me, but I got even more scared when Maple got in front of me. "Maple! Get out of the way!" I yelled. She swung her leaf blade at the sludge bomb, but her tail was extended too far out. She let out a cry as the nasty purple ball smashed into her side and exploded into a ton of poison energy and sludge.

I closed my eyes when the sludge bomb hit. When I opened them, Maple was lying on the ground in front of me, fainted. I was unharmed. Maple saved me from the sludge bomb. I lied still for several moments, breathing slowly to calm myself and regain my senses. I shifted my head up to look around just in time to witness Cedar smashing into the Skuntank, his form glowing white with power from a double edge. The Skuntank thudded against the ground and fainted. Cedar hustled over to me. "Hickory, are you alright?" he asked.

I slowly got off my side and sat down. "I'm okay, really tired, but I'll be fine," I muttered. "But Maple got hit by a sludge bomb and fainted," I said regretfully, pointing towards her.

Cedar looked at Maple lying there. "Will she be alright?" he asked, due to a lack of anything better to say.

"Yeah she'll be fine," I sighed. "Listen, I want to bring her to her den. Can you handle these two dummies?" I asked, signalling to the fainted Pinsir and Skuntank.

"What about them?" Cedar asked.

"Do what we did with Squash. When they wake up, talk to them. Convince them to stop bothering us."

"Um, I don't think I should try to handle two raiders at once when I'm all alone," Cedar pointed out. "Can't you stay here?"

I sighed. "Fine... but if Hooves comes back, then I'll leave with Maple. You two can handle them." I just wanted to get away from The Raiders and be alone with Maple. _Hooves better have the sense to get back here soon._

I walked over to Maple, sat down next to her, and thought about the cause of her disheveled fur. _I would've fainted had that sludge bomb hit me. Maple took the hit for me. She was just as exhausted as I was, and she's even weak to poison attacks, and yet she still tried to protect me from that sludge bomb._

 _You didn't have to intercept the sludge bomb…_ I thought, stroking her fur back to normal. Of course I would've done the same for her if the positions were reversed though. I would try to block any attack from hitting Maple if I could. _Maybe she feels the same way I feel about her… I hope she does..._

"What happened to her?" said an overly optimistic voice from behind me that made me jump in surprise. I stared angrily at the source.

"What happened to her?" Hooves annoyingly repeated.

"She got hit by a sludge bomb and fainted," I responded bitterly.

"Oh…"

"Hey Hooves, help Cedar deal with the two raiders when they wake up. I'm going to bring Maple back to her den," I instructed.

I was turning back towards Maple when Cedar said, "Hickory, can't you also stay?"

"No, I want to bring Maple to her den," I insisted. "I know you two can handle the raiders. I trust you guys."

"Are you sure you'll be able to carry Maple to her den after that fight?" Cedar asked.

"Yes. I'm perfectly fine now," I asserted.

"Okay, if you say so."

I carried Maple on my back about halfway to her den until I was too tired to continue carrying her and had to put her down. After regaining my lost breath for a several moments, I grabbed one of her legs in my maw and dragged her the rest of the way. Since her den was basically right next to the field and her garden, it wasn't that long - the sun had barely moved - but I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got to her den. I dragged Maple onto her leaf bed, then collapsed on the floor beside her. She was still out cold.

Luckily, her emergency basket was full of juicy blue Oran berries. I ate a couple to regain my energy. They worked like magic, just like those expensive potions that humans used on their pokémon. I looked at Maple lying on the bed. I wasn't worried; I knew she would be perfectly fine after a few Oran berries. Maple's den slowly turned darker and more orange shaded as the sun steadily lowered.

It was quite dark in the den when Maple finally stirred. I was looking out the den at the dark orange sky when I heard the leaves of her bed shift. I immediately turned to look at her. "Hey Maple, how are you feeling?" I asked.

"Ugh, I feel sore everywhere," she remarked. She looked around and patted the leaves of her bed a couple times. "Wait, how'd I get back to my den?"

"I carried you here," I said. I passed her the basket of Oran berries. "Here, after a few Oran berries you'll feel a lot better."

"Thanks for bringing me back here. Why did you bother though? You must be so exhausted," she asked as she ate her Oran berries and regained her strength.

"You saved me from that sludge bomb, so the least I could do was bring you back to your den," I said. "You know it wasn't necessary, right? Why did you sacrifice yourself for me?"

"Well, I saw you on the ground and I was still able to move, so I just had to try and stop it," she said. "Even though I couldn't reflect the attack, at least I blocked it from hitting you. It wouldn't be fair if you got knocked out because I dragged you into a fight to protect my garden."

"I'd help you out in any fight because I love you," I responded.

The words just flowed out of my mouth naturally. There was a moment of silence as we both processed what I had just said. I felt heat rush up to my cheeks, and not the kind of heat that comes from fire. But after a moment, Maple smiled at me, and I smiled too. "You… love me?" she said softly.

"Yeah, you're caring and strong. I know I can always rely on you for anything. There was once a time that you were so scared of The Raiders. You had to be rescued by me. That time is long gone. Today you fought without fear. And I know you care about me because you were willing to protect me from that sludge bomb. I love you Maple. You're special to me."

She blushed from my praise. "Well, I couldn't do anything without you," she said. "You told me how to face my fears of The Raiders, and you taught me how to resist them. You taught me new grass moves and trained my grass abilities, not only for fighting but for growing my garden, too. I've become so much more ever since you came home." She smiled at me sweetly. "How could I not love you for all that?"

I smiled, knowing the feeling was mutual. I lowered my head to her side, closed my eyes, and nuzzled her cheek with mine. She nuzzled me back lovingly. It was such a good feeling to finally exchange feelings with Maple. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that it was much darker. Maple shifted over to one side of her bed and patted the empty space next to her with her tail, smiling at me. I smiled back and climbed in next to her. We snuggled into each other's sides. Her soft fur was nice and comfortable. I lied my head down next to hers, our cheeks brushing slightly.

"So, what happened to The Raiders?" Maple asked.

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about them until now. My friends came to help us just in time, and they were able to knock out the Pinsir and Skuntank, but… Splint the Luxray still managed to escape."

"Did you get to talk to the two raiders you knocked out?"

"No, because I wanted to bring you back here," I said. "I told Cedar to talk with them. I trust that he'll be able to convince them to stop harassing anyone."

"You didn't have to bring me here all on your own," she said.

"After that fight, I just wanted alone time with you," I explained.

"Oh, I see," she said, then nuzzled me again. I gladly nuzzled her back. She placed her forepaw on mine. I gently laid my tail on her back, and she did the same for me.

"I've never felt this close with Spruce," Maple whispered. "I liked him because he saved me from the raiders. I started to stop liking him when he didn't save me the second time. Then you came in and taught me how to save myself."

The sun fully set and it was finally dark. "You should go to sleep," Maple said quietly. "You haven't rested after that battle."

"You're right, I should." I rested my head against hers, and she leaned back against me. "Thank you for saving me," I whispered.

"You're welcome. Thank you for teaching me how to save you," she whispered back. I chuckled lightly. We cuddled up together and I quickly fell into a blissful sleep in Maple's paws.


End file.
